WEAK MARKETS

“In bear markets, stocks return to their rightful owners.” J.P Morgan

“The stock market is the only market where things go on sale and all the customers run out of the store.” Cullen Roche

“The key to making money in stocks is to not get scared out of them.” Peter Lynch

“The Chinese do not have a word for crisis. What they do have, however, is a two-word idiom: crisis equals danger and opportunity.” Bennett Goodspeed

“In the midst of chaos, there is always opportunity.” Sun Tzu, 'Art of War'

"As crisis is comprised of danger and opportunity, those who sense change in the early stages will tend to have the most bountiful harvest." Bennett Goodspeed

"Market corrections are the price of admission to the wonderous theme park called the stock market." Ben Carlson

"Bear market smoke gets in one's eyes and it blinds us to buying opportunities if we are too intent on market timing." Chris Mayer

"When a dress is on sale you want to buy but people's behaviour it's opposite in the stock market; you want to buy higher and sell lower. You need to fight that emotion." Stanley Druckenmiller

“If people walk into (a supermarket), they look for low prices. People walking into financial markets paradoxically seem to prefer high prices. And the way you measure price in terms of stocks is: what do you pay for a dollar of what corporations (are earning)?” James Grant

“Trying to predict the timing of the next major market dislocation has always been a ‘fool’s errand.’” Paul Singer

“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections or trying to anticipate corrections than has been lost in corrections themselves.” Peter Lynch 

“No one can predict market downturns with any useful level of reliability. However, when one of the repeated warning proves accurate forecasters will ignore the fact that if you had followed their advice you would have forgone gains which far outweigh your losses in the downturn.' Terry Smith

“We believe that declines are unpredictable and those who attempt to predict the market are choosing a strategy which will serve them a loser’s hand over the long term.” Francois Rochon

“It’s in the nature of stock markets to go way down from time to time. There’s no system to avoid bad markets. You can’t do it unless you try to time the market, which is a seriously dumb thing to do. Conservative investing with steady savings without expecting miracles is the way to go.” Charlie Munger

“A down market lets you buy more shares in great companies at favourable prices. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll make most of your money from these periods. You just won’t realise it until much later.” Shelby Davis

“Christopher Davis’ grandfather used to say that you make the most money out of a bear market financial panic – you just don’t know it at the time. It’s always the case.” Li Lu

“I think that clearly our best investments have been made in periods of great, extreme market distress.” Peter Keefe

“As has been often noted but seldom heeded, selling during a selling panic is rarely an effective strategy.” Bill Miller

“The times when you make the most money is when things really look awful. No one has a rational answer as to how we’ll get out of the problems. If you know a company well and have a history of owning it or studied it carefully, you’ll see it at a price which is just a crazy price. You couldn’t buy at that price before.” Glenn Greenberg

“Amidst a swirl of disconcerting events that can feel as though they’re spinning out of control, it’s natural to want to grab the wheel hard and steer, making wholesale changes to a portfolio, or possibly ‘going to cash’. Yet while bold action amidst heightened uncertainty may be emotionally soothing, it is rarely financially rewarding.” John Harris

“Real investors should never feel bearish because the time to buy value is when markets go down!” Thomas Kahn

“We see the latest correction not as a disaster, but as an opportunity to acquire more shares at low prices. This is how great fortunes are made over time.” Peter Lynch

“While unsettling, a turbulent stock market works to our advantage as opportunities to invest in excellent businesses at attractive prices may become available. In short, as prices fall, the search for new ideas gets easier and more interesting.” Peter Keefe

"Bear markets are great times to load up on stocks." Ralph Wanger

“Cash combined with courage in a crisis is priceless.” Warren Buffett

“My dad used to say that every once in a while, the market has to shake out the grocery clerks. It was grocery clerks then, hedge funds now, but they act the same way and panic when the market’s down. But instead of selling when the market’s down, it’s time to buy things cheaply. And when the market is up, it’s time to think about selling. Human beings tend to go the other way. That’s why having great conviction in what Graham called a fair ‘central value’ for each current and prospective investment is so important.” Bill Stewart

"Quickly forgotten during times of distress, yet no less important to remember, is that lower prices are an ally to long-term returns." Allan Mecham

“When markets are falling, the potential for future appreciation in stocks generally increases.” Francois Rochon

"It is when assets are difficult to justify buying (because of recent price declines and losses) that they can actually promise real value. And vice versa. Trend-following can work as a trading strategy, but at pricing extremes, trend-following can be very dangerous." Paul Singer

"I am a bear market buyer; I like to sell into market strength." Peter Cundill

"Since day one, I emphasized how inevitable stock market corrections are. I even wrote many times that they were ‘Partners’ in our quest for superior returns. So, we should not fear them but acknowledge right from the start that we will live through many corrections over the years. We should even try to benefit from them as much as we can." Francois Rochon

“You need to have bad markets to set the stage for the 40% annual increases. If we had good markets forever, I’d be dead.” Peter Cundill

"It’s not during up years that great investment track records are made!" Charles De Vaulx

"Down cycles are not fun. But they form the basis for enormous future profitability.” Steve Schwarzman

“Difficult markets help us succeed as investors. While claiming no predictive ability to recognise or time the next recession, we are not afraid of periods of slow business and weaker markets. Only in adverse environments do owner-orientated companies with proven track records and strong balance sheets sell at bargain prices. Tough times allow the prepared to attractively deploy capital, setting the stage for future growth.” Bruce Berkowitz

“In recent weeks, investors have relearned a basic truth about markets – prices go down as well as up. While emotionally taxing, down markets give us what we need to earn above average returns – low prices for excellent businesses.” Bruce Berkowitz

"Most investors take comfort from calm, steadily rising markets: roiling markets can drive investor panic. But these conventional reactions are inverted. When all feels calm and prices surge, the markets may feel safe; but, in fact, they are dangerous because few investors are focussing on risk. When one feels in the pit of one's stomach the fear that accompanies plunging market prices, risk-taking becomes considerably less risky, because risk is often priced into an asset's lower valuation." Seth Klarman

“Stocks don’t read the paper or swoon in response to scary headlines. When they’re priced for desperation they can rally in the face of desperation.” The Davis Dynasty

"When the market is so bad that you think it is obvious that you should be net short, that's typically the time when it is all in the price and you should be buying." Martin Taylor

"Tumbling markets can be helpful to the true investor if he has cash available when prices get far out of line with values." Warren Buffett

“A stock market decline is as routine as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you’re prepared, it can’t hurt you. A decline is a great opportunity to pick up the bargains left behind by investors who are fleeing the storm in panic.” Peter Lynch

“The optimal time to purchase securities is during periods of market collapse – when Mr. Market indiscriminately offers discounts on great and poor businesses alike. Unfortunately, it’s during these same periods that fear tends to cause an investor’s confidence to fall just as quickly as their portfolio value. Luckily, for the astute investor, the simple prescription is knowledge. The more knowledge an individual has about a situation and the drivers causing it, the more confident they will be in their derived conclusions. Conducting months of research certainly makes it much easier to have conviction in an idea – especially when the world is seemingly going off the hinges.” Fred Liu

“Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies, and they will briefly rain gold. When downpours of that sort occur, it’s imperative that we rush outdoors carrying washtubs, not teaspoons. And that we will do.” Warren Buffett

“Investors who expect to be ongoing buyers of investments throughout their lifetimes should adopt a similar attitude toward market fluctuations; instead many illogically become euphoric when stock prices rise and unhappy when they fall. They show no such confusion in their reaction to food prices: Knowing they are forever going to be buyers of food, they welcome falling prices and deplore price increases. (It's the seller of food who doesn't like declining prices.)” Warren Buffett

"For those properly prepared in advance, a bear market in stocks is not a calamity but an opportunity." Sir John Templeton

“Investors have no reason to feel bearish. True value investors are glad the markets are down.” Irving Kahn

“We have this saying: The worst things get, the better they get. When things are bad, they go up.” David Tepper

“The low point for share prices is when most people are expecting bad news, not after the bad news comes out.” Sir John Templeton

"I'm very bullish when the market drops perceptibly because I feel it has already discounted any troubles we are going to have." Roy Neuberger

“The best bargains are always found in frightening environments.” Howard Marks

“Declining stock prices can ultimately cause people to panic and sell. But the moment they join the panic and sell stock, they also relieve the cause of their fears and become potential buyers. The act of selling removes the anxiety, restores equanimity, and gives them the cash to buy.” Leon Levy

“When things are bad, we’re going to parachute in and look.” Scott Hood

“The best time to buy stocks is when they are cheap. However, when stocks are at their cheapest, there are usually a whole host of reasons not to buy them.” Christopher Browne

"Large price declines across the board should attract your attention. A good rule of thumb is to sell during times of market hysteria and buy during times of panic. Always remember to buy low and sell high. It sounds so simple, but it is extremely difficult. Just keep this dictum in mind - especially when your emotions are getting the best of you." Jim Rogers

“Invest in times of chaos, harvest in times of prosperity.” Jonathon Sokoloff

“Ironically, most of the risk to long-term investors in equities comes from panicking in the short-term and closing out positions at temporary low points.” Jeremy Grantham

“Selling out at the bottom – and thus failing to participate in the subsequent recovery – is the cardinal sin of investing. The ability to persevere requires consistent adherence to a well-thought-out approach; control over emotion; and a portfolio built to withstand declines.” Howard Marks

“We’re very focused on paying a cheap price, and that only comes about when there’s some short term challenge.” David Herro

“I am particularly interested in buying companies when their long term prospects are intact but they are cheap because they face short term issues.” Robert Vinall

“Our clients are often surprised to find that our biggest gains spring from buying up stocks during their worst performance periods. It's after these downturns that committed investors learn that market adversities often create great long-term benefits, and that it truly can pay to ignore the crowd.” Bruce Berkowitz

“A market downturn doesn’t bother us. For us and our long-term investors, it is an opportunity to increase our ownership of great companies with great management at good prices. Only for short-term investors and market timers is a correction not an opportunity.” Warren Buffett

“Drawdowns are no reason to be unsettled. To the contrary, if share prices never fell, there would be less opportunity to buy companies cheaply. Higher long-term value creation in return for some short-term discomfort at a price decline is a trade every business owner should be happy to make.” Robert Vinall

“It is when the knives are falling that the people are most terrified that the best bargains are available. So if you wait until the dust settles, the bargains are gone.” Howard Marks

"We should not lament market downdrafts, but instead remain completely focused on taking advantage of them." Jim Mooney

“In our experience, it is during periods of economic and market distress that investors can create the most value. Great businesses can go from overvalued, to undervalued, to throwaway prices that could never be imagined in better times.” Chuck Akre

“No one enjoys a sharp market downturn, with mark to market losses, growing panic and economic dislocation. Yet a downturn is a necessary precursor to an upturn; the seeds of recovery and eventually of substantial profit are sown amidst the carnage." Seth Klarman

“The triggers might be different, but the result is always the same – market crashes are followed by recoveries. While the oft-quoted investment maxim that ‘past performance is no guarantee of future returns’ remains as true today as it has ever been, a brief look at history can serve as a reminder for investors to hold their nerve, take a long-term view and ride out short-term volatility.” Baillie Gifford

"You know the prose: "Maintain buying reserves until current uncertainties are resolved,” etc. Before reaching for that crutch, face up to two unpleasant facts: The future is never clear; you pay a very high price for a cheery consensus. Uncertainty actually is the friend of the buyer of long-term values." Warren Buffett

"My philosophy is that life is not about waiting for a storm to pass. It is about dancing in the rain. One usually can read a weather map and reasonably predict when a storm will pass. If one waits for the moment when the sun breaks out, there is a high probability others already will have reacted to the improved prospects and already driven up the price of the stock - and thus the opportunity to earn large profits will have been missed." Ed Wachenheim

“The Chinese phrase for the term 'crisis' means both 'danger' and 'opportunity.' When the overall market recovers and fear subsides, both genuine opportunities and the traps often provide large short term gains. But these short term results mask the true risks, as few can tell whether the good results stem from prudence or luck." Li Lu

“It is a market truism that the seeds of outperformance are planted during bear markets. Eventually, stocks will be priced according to fundamentals and the economics of their balance sheets. Those that have the courage and discipline to invest in sound companies during calamitous economic conditions reap the rewards. What matters in stock picking is not buying at the right time but buying the right business for the right price. At some point, probably before economic headwinds have abated, panicked buyers will stampede into the market fearful that they will miss the bounce after experiencing so much wealth destruction.” Jake Rosser

“Occasionally, weak markets and rotation challenge our confidence, even though we’ve done the research and try to maintain our long-term perspective. They stir up the fear bug in all of us and make long-term investing seem a lot harder than it really is. We must keep in mind that markets tend to rise more than two thirds of the time and that those inevitable periods of rotation pass.” Bill Stewart

"Investors today are faced with an easy choice - fretting over the short-term prospects for the economy and the market, or taking the longer view that recessions and bear markets present excellent long-term investment opportunities. It always takes courage to invest in depressed markets, but if you focus on fundamentally sound businesses trading at bargain prices, your courage is generally rewarded." Mario Gabelli

“Learning to love markdowns is critical for long-term investment success. Key is the ability to retain the perspective that markdowns represent the opportunity to buy an additional stake in a business at an even better price, and that a markdown is a loss only if you sell. From this vantage point, what seems on the surface like bad news is actually a positive development. Obviously, in the face of a downdraft, it is incumbent on investors to regularly check their analysis and reaffirm their conclusions, especially in the face of sudden and surprising price declines, to assess whether the price action may reflect important information—either of new developments or information that your own analysis may have missed or misunderstood.” Seth Klarman