Mr.MARKET

"Mr.Market can be an old fool (or maybe a young fool) who, from time to time, becomes hysterical. Sometimes, in his madness, he sees ghosts. At others, he imagines the good fairy touching him with her long golden fingers." Barton Biggs

“The intelligent investor shouldn’t ignore Mr.Market entirely. Instead, you should do business with him - but only to the extent that it serves your interests." Benjamin Graham

“Mr.Market’s most dangerous foil tactic is placing silly valuations on businesses, which encourages further speculations driving the tide so high that bubbles are formed.” Christopher Begg

"If you look to 'Mr.Market' for advice, or if you imbue him with wisdom, you are destined to fail." Seth Klarman

“To unquestioningly accept mercurial Mr.Market’s judgement as the final arbiter of the fairness of the price-to-value relationship is to mistake a stooge for a sage.” Frank Martin

“Mr.Market’s job is to provide you with prices; your job is to decide whether it is to your advantage to act on them. You do not have to trade with him just because he constantly begs you to.” Benjamin Graham

“Don’t take advice from Mr.Market, who again and again is a wonderful creator of opportunities but whose advice should never, ever be followed.” Seth Klarman

“Let it be emphasised that Mr.Market is an unprincipled man of genius. He is seeking to buy your interest at the lowest price and sell you shares at the highest possible price.” Christopher Begg

“While Mr.Market becomes more mistake-prone when he’s nervous, he still tends to get it right much more than he gets it wrong, and he retains a highly developed capacity for punishing complacency and stubborn thinking.” John Harris

"Mr Market's predictably irrational proclivities can become our edge. He's a terrible master but a worthy servant." Frank Martin

"Mr.Market gives you opportunities to buy above and below intrinsic value.” Mario Gabelli

"Investors can take advantage of Mr.Market's shifting moods." Marathon Asset Management

“Mr.Market is there to serve you, not to guide you. It is his pocketbook, not his wisdom, that you will find useful.” Warren Buffett

“There are three core concepts, you’re not buying a stock, you’re buying a business; you have Mr.Market who has all sorts of mood swings and you want to take advantage of Mr.Market when he’s depressed to buy and euphoric to sell; and the third is margin of safety, which is trying to buy things significantly below what they are worth. These are timeless and universal.” Mohnish Pabrai

“Of course the best part of it all was his [Ben Graham’s] concept of “Mr. Market.” Instead of thinking the market was efficient, he treated it as a manic-depressive who comes by every day. And some days he says, ‘I’ll sell you some of my interest for way less than you think its worth.’ And other days, “Mr. Market” comes by and says, ‘I’ll buy your interest at a price that’s way higher than you think its worth.’ And you get the option of deciding whether you want to buy more, sell part of what you already have or do nothing at all. To Graham, it was a blessing to be in business with a manic-depressive who gave you this series of options all the time. That was a very significant mental construct.” Charlie Munger

“Mr.Market’s pari-mutuel approach to setting prices could not be more different from the way prices are determined for the sale of entire businesses.” Mohnish Pabrai

“Ben Graham advanced the idea that in the short term, Mr.Market is a voting machine and in the long term a weighing machine. Mr.Market’s most coy manoeuvre, to foil your plans of superior compounded returns, is to encourage you to sell something of value for the perceived comfort of cash. Earnings releases, geopolitical events, change in political leadership, change in sector leadership, change in commodity prices, are just a few of the things that Mr.Market will throw at the investor as he asks the investor to rise to vote – take action – make a decision – make a trade – sell something of worth in exchange for something of less worth.” Christopher Begg

"Successful investors must possess the mindset to take advantage of Mr.Market's bipolarity, and even come to appreciate it." Seth Klarman

"Mr Market will make you work for it. But eventually, I believe, when investor emotions change or deeply buried facts emerge, the price pendulum swings back to more normal positioning." Bruce Berkowitz

"Benjamin Graham said if you don't have an intimate knowledge of the chronic behavioural anomalies of ‘Mr.Market’, the imaginary manic/depressive, who personifies the emotional impetus behind the actions of the ‘crowd’, you're doomed to mediocrity or worse." Frank Martin

"The reality is that Mr.Market knows nothing, being the product of the collective action of thousands of buyers and sellers who themselves are not always motivated by investment fundamentals. Emotional investors and speculators inevitably lose money; investors who take advantage of Mr.Market's periodic irrationality, by contrast, have a good chance of enjoying long-term investment success." Seth Klarman

"It’s all about stacking the odds in your favour by understanding Mr.Market (aka/ “the crowd”) and patiently waiting for him to make you a deal you simply can’t refuse." Frank Martin

“Indeed, if you aren't certain that you understand and can value your business far better than Mr.Market, you don't belong in the game. As they say in poker, ‘If you've been in the game 30 minutes and you don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.’" Warren Buffett

“During periods of relative calm, Benjamin Graham’s metaphorical Mr.Market does a generally good job of assessing the values of individual companies. But like most people, he becomes less discerning when he’s panicked, creating pockets of opportunity for investors with the equanimity to ground their judgments in facts rather than emotions. Our aim is to expliot these opportunities when we see them, reducing holdings that Mr.Market continues to view with relative optimism and increasing those where we think he has become excessively skeptical.” John Harris

"If you’re patient, Mr. Market almost always gives you a good chance someday. The question is more: “Will you have the courage to take it when it comes?” Chris Mayer

"I like to believe that I am a consistent investor while Mr. Market, my judge and jury, is a manic depressive who delivers wildly inconsistent verdicts on my efforts." David Poppe

“Ben Graham and Warren Buffett have talked about a charming, seductive manic-depressive gentleman named Mr. Market. Every day he shows up on your doorstep offering to do business with you, When he's manic, he'll offer to buy your stocks or sell you his for absurdly inflated prices. When he's depressed, his prices go ridiculously low. The mistake most people make is answering the door just because Mr. Market knocks. You don't have to let him in. Why should you buy just because he's excited? Why should you sell just because he's down in the dumps? A long-term investor shouldn't care about market prices.” Charles D. Ellis