Thursday 31 October 2013

Intelligence alone is not enough to ensure investment success.

The counterpart of emotion is rationality.

The size of the investor's brain is less important than the ability to detach the brain from the emotions.

"Rationality is essential when others are making decisions based on short-term greed or fear.  That's where the money is made," says Buffett.

Buffett tells us that successful investing does not require having a high IQ or taking the formal courses taught at most business schools.

What matters most is temperament.  And when Buffett talks about temperament he means rationality.

The cornerstone to rationality is the ability to see past the present and analyze several possible scenarios, eventually making a deliberate choice.  That, in a nutshell, is Warren Buffett.

Those  who know Buffett agree it is rationality that sets him apart from the rest.

Roger Lowenstein, the author of Buffett:  The Making of an American Capitalist, says, "Buffett's genius is largely a genius of character - of patience, discipline and rationality."

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