10 George Soros Quotes on Investing

known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England.” He earned this title in 1992, when he (famously) made more than a billion dollars selling-short the pound sterling. He is the co-founder and manager of the Quantum Endowment Fund, an international hedge fund with more than $27 billion in assets under management. Soros survived as a young jew, living in Nazi-occupied Hungary in 1944. He then immigrated to England to attend the London School of Economics, and moved to the US in 1956 to work as a stock broker. Today, Soros is a passionate investor, philanthropist, and democratic idealist who could teach us a lot about investing and philosophy. Here are ten very insightful quotes from him:

1. “If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.” – As I discussed in this article, personal emotions have no place in investing. If you want to be successful in the long-run, base your investment decisions on rationality and discipline.

2. “I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong…I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes.” – Almost every successful investor that I’ve written about knows this. That is, you must recognize and admit your mistakes when you make them, cut your losses short, and move on to the next logical step.

3. “The financial markets generally are unpredictable. So that one has to have different scenarios… The idea that you can actually predict what’s going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market.” – Successful traders abide by this philosophy by heart. Markets truly are random and no one knows where, when, and how prices will move. The key is to be ready for every scenario that can happen so that you can take advantage of the opportunities that lay ahead.

4. “Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux, and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” – Since markets are random, anything can happen, even the “unexpected.” The biggest opportunities lie in those unexpected events because most people are betting on the obvious, and in the market, most people are wrong.

5. “The worse a situation becomes, the less it takes to turn it around, and the bigger the upside.” – This is true in life as well as in investing. When you hit rock-bottom, every inch of improvement feels so much better and powerful. If you bought Goldman Sachs (GS) in the midst of the subprime crisis in 2009, you could’ve made more than thrice your money just a year after.

6. “Stock market bubbles don’t grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality as distorted by a misconception.” – Stock market bubbles start with good corporate or economic fundamentals. Things just go out of hand when people’s misguided greed comes into play.

7. “I contend that financial markets never reflect the underlying reality accurately; they always distort it in some way or another and the distortions find expression in market prices.” – Just like Warren Buffett, Soros also looks at value over price. They both know that price is just noise made by human emotions in the markets. Value, on the other hand, is the intrinsic worth of an asset.

8. “Unfortunately, the more complex the system, the greater the room for error.” – Obviously, when it comes to investing, Soros like to KISS (keep it simple, silly). He built a financial empire by adhering to this basic principle, and so should you. A simple but effective investing system will always beat the crap out of a complex system that doesn’t work.

9. “Making an investment decision is like formulating a scientific hypothesis and submitting it to a practical test. The main difference is that the hypothesis that underlies an investment decision is intended to make money and not to establish a universally valid generalization.” – The simple goal of investing is to make money, not to be right all the time. As a trader, I abide by this mantra and it makes it easy for me to accept losses easily and to stick to my investing plan.

10. “We try to catch new trends early and in later stages we try to catch trend reversals. Therefore, we tend to stabilize rather than destabilize the market. We are not doing this as a public service. It is our style of making money.” – Again, like Warren Buffet, Soros enters markets based on valuations. He buys when prices are “low” and sells when they are “high,” thereby effectively catching trend reversals.

If you look at these quotes, you can see that Soros has very similar investment philosophies with Warren Buffet. I guess great minds really do think alike, so let’s adapt these principles into our own investing to get some kick-ass results.

Calvin comments:

1. “If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.”

VERY TRUE. IN INVESTING MOST OF THE TIME IS VERY BORING INDEED! WHEN JAKS WAS ONLY 40 SEN FEW PEOPLE WERE IN JAKS FORUM THEN.

ANOTHER VERY BORING STOCK WAS PM CORP IN YEARS 2010 to 2012. FOR ALMOST 2 LONG YEARS PM CORP WAS TRADED AT 9 SEN DAY IN DAY OUT!

REALLY BORING THEN. TILL ONE DAY PM CORP POWERED TO 36 SEN AND UP 300%

2. “I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong…I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes.” –

YES. IT SAYS, "HE WHO FIGHTS AND RUN AWAY WILL LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY"

UNCLE KYY RUN AWAY FROM MUDAJAYA & JTIASA AT PEAK PRICES OF RM2.70 & RM2.60. BUT MADE A HUGE BLUNDER IN XINQUAN UNTIL IT "SAU TONG".  NOW HE IS WISE TO SLOWLY GET OUT OF JAKS.

3. “The financial markets generally are unpredictable. So that one has to have different scenarios… The idea that you can actually predict what’s going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market.” – Successful traders abide by this philosophy by heart. Markets truly are random and no one knows where, when, and how prices will move. The key is to be ready for every scenario that can happen so that you can take advantage of the opportunities that lay ahead.

YES AND NO

YES BECAUSE CALVIN MADE A SILLY MISTAKE THINK BN MIGHT STILL WIN BUY A REDUCED MAJORITY. 

YES. TOTALLY UNPREDICTABLE AS FOCUS SHIFT UP TO LANGKAWI, PENANG & KEDAH NEW GOLDEN TRIANGLE DUE TO PH STALWARTS HOMEGROUND

NO. BECAUSE UNDER NORMAL TIMES COMPANIES WITH MOAT, SUPERIOR EDGE AND IN GROWING INDUSTRIES SHOULD ALWAYS DO OK. AND THESE STOCKS ARE PREDICTABLE- MCDONALD, APPLE, WAL MART, GEICO INSURANCE & COCA COLA

4. “Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux, and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” – Since markets are random, anything can happen, even the “unexpected.” The biggest opportunities lie in those unexpected events because most people are betting on the obvious, and in the market, most people are wrong.

I LIKE POINT NO. 4

(((money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.”)))

ALWAYS LOOK BEYOND THE OBVIOUS: SEE BEYOND THE SURFACE: LOOK BEYOND THE NOW

UNFORTUNATELY THE MAJORITY ONLY INVEST IN ONLY WHAT IS "OBVIOUS". SO IF EVERYONE IS BUYING AT THE SAME TIME - PRICE IS NO LONGER CHEAP. IN FACT MOST PROBABLY DUE TO POPULAR CONSENSUS & CONFIDENCE MOST ARE OVER PAYING

5. “The worse a situation becomes, the less it takes to turn it around, and the bigger the upside.” – This is true in life as well as in investing. When you hit rock-bottom, every inch of improvement feels so much better and powerful. If you bought Goldman Sachs (GS) in the midst of the subprime crisis in 2009, you could’ve made more than thrice your money just a year after.

CORRECT! 

CLAP!

CLAP!!

CLAP!!!

WHEN VALUE STOCK CRASHES TO ROCK BOTTOM - THE FUTURE UPSIDE IS GREAT! BUT BOTTOM FISHING IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. IT IS A LONESOME PLACE AND TOTALLY BOMBED OUT AND MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE AVOID IT.

6. “Stock market bubbles don’t grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality as distorted by a misconception.” – Stock market bubbles start with good corporate or economic fundamentals. Things just go out of hand when people’s misguided greed comes into play.

CORRECT LOH

A GOOD STOCK WHEN FIRST STARTED OUT BUT EUPHORIA TOOK OVER AND IT MOVES FROM VALUE INVESTING INTO SPECULATING. AND THE NOISES DISTORT IT FURTHER TILL ALL GONE MAD!

7. “I contend that financial markets never reflect the underlying reality accurately; they always distort it in some way or another and the distortions find expression in market prices.” – Just like Warren Buffett, Soros also looks at value over price. They both know that price is just noise made by human emotions in the markets. Value, on the other hand, is the intrinsic worth of an asset.

WELL SAID

(((Just like Warren Buffett, Soros also looks at value over price. They both know that price is just noise made by human emotions in the markets. Value, on the other hand, is the intrinsic worth of an asset.)))

Value, on the other hand, is the intrinsic worth of an asset

THUMBS UP!!

8. “Unfortunately, the more complex the system, the greater the room for error.” – Obviously, when it comes to investing, Soros like to KISS (keep it simple, silly). He built a financial empire by adhering to this basic principle, and so should you. A simple but effective investing system will always beat the crap out of a complex system that doesn’t work.

KEEP IT SIMPLE:

WARREN BUFFET INVESTED 

SOFT DRINKS - COCA COLA

CHOCOLATES - SEE'S CANDY

CHEWING GUM - WRIGLEY CHEWING GUM

BURGERS - MCDONALD

ALL SIMPLE STUFF

9. “Making an investment decision is like formulating a scientific hypothesis and submitting it to a practical test. The main difference is that the hypothesis that underlies an investment decision is intended to make money and not to establish a universally valid generalization.” – The simple goal of investing is to make money, not to be right all the time. As a trader, I abide by this mantra and it makes it easy for me to accept losses easily and to stick to my investing plan.

NO COMMENT

10. “We try to catch new trends early and in later stages we try to catch trend reversals. Therefore, we tend to stabilize rather than destabilize the market. We are not doing this as a public service. It is our style of making money.” – Again, like Warren Buffet, Soros enters markets based on valuations. He buys when prices are “low” and sells when they are “high,” thereby effectively catching trend reversals.

If you look at these quotes, you can see that Soros has very similar investment philosophies with Warren Buffet. I guess great minds really do think alike, so let’s adapt these principles into our own investing to get some kick-ass results.

THIS ONE VERY GOOD

(((“We try to catch new trends early and in later stages we try to catch trend reversals)))

“We try to catch new trends early

WE TRY TO CATCH NEW TRENDS EARLY"

BN GOVT NOW OVER

PH GOVT NOW IN CHARGE

THE POLICIES & CHANGES IN COMING DAYS AND MONTHS WILL SET NEW DIRECTIONS FOR THE MARKETS

SO WATCH CAREFULLY WHAT & WHY THEY IMPLEMENT

AND MORE NEW TRENDS WILL EMERGE

GOOD LUCK TO ALL

BEST REGARDS

Calvin Tan Research

Singapore