Fleck's Thoughts

A reader was kind enough to send in a collection of his favorite "thoughts" from Bill, which are reproduced here.

You don't have to be involved every day, you can wait for the times when you feel like the odds are really on your side.

It's about not being PERFECT and that sometimes we ALL make mistakes.

No one is right all the time and we all make mistakes... folks should expect to make them and then they will be more ready to deal with them... you (me too) will be wrong... it's important to know that.

Luck does favor those who are prepared.

Patience BEFORE acting is far more important than patience AFTER acting... it took me a long time and a lot of dough to learn that lesson.

Shorts are about problems and catalysts - NOT valuation. Valuation does factor into it, but it is never ever a reason to short a stock.

"Money printing plus imagination are potent forces that can't solve our problems but can affect the stock market in such a way as to make it appear that the worst has passed."

Paper money is just a medium of exchange; it's a store of nothing.

The patience required in investing is not so much the patience sitting with a position after you establish it, but the willingness to be patient before you establish it.

(Paraphrasing) Sometimes I get chased out of a position. It happens. You can't get it right all the time.

People are sheep-- why did so few see the real estate and stock bubbles-- they were extremely obvious.

You have to be prepared to be wrong in the short run...but managing risks are like that, when you are going against the crowd.

On NSTK (now MRNA) Boy did I blow that one... my worst investment mistake ever (which I compounded by rationalizing my mistake-- once I knew I was wrong).

"You don't have to buy and hold forever to not "bet" or "make " plays". I never think of it that way, I may speculate, which I do often, but still that isn't betting. Betting has terrible odds...while when speculating you can wait until you get odds that you think tilt the risk reward in your favor. "

"That was excellent--just excellent--folks who own gold should print it out and keep it."

Gold can still decline in price and remain depressed in price for significant time periods. This occurs because those who demand and supply gold need not follow any model or assess any risks or act against them according to any particular time table, so that gold may, for reasons unknown, fluctuate in unaccountable ways for significant periods of time.

Sometimes the trades that you get away from are more important than the ones you keep.

I tend to be pretty patient BEFORE acting. IMO, being patient is the key to not losing money...patience doesn't mean you won't lose, as we all lose sometimes. BUT being impatient or somewhat careless is a guaranteed way to lose lots of money.