Michael Steinhardt Quotes

United States, Investor
December 7, 1940

Michael H. Steinhardt is an American investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1967, he founded a hedge fund, Steinhardt Partners, that averaged an annualized return for its clients of 24.5% from 1967 to 1978. His fund lost 1/3 of its value in the 1994 bond market crisis. In 1995, he closed his fund stating, "I thought there must be something more virtuous, more ennobling to do with one's life than make rich people richer," before making a 2004 comeback to head WisdomTree Investments, a fund with nearly $43 billion USD in assets under management.

Also known as Manager, Philanthropist

You have to be intellectually honest with yourself and others. In my judgment, all great investors are seekers of truth.

Michael Steinhardt
When your views are truly contrarian, they are inevitably uncomfortable. Courage and the ability to withstand pain are required.

Michael Steinhardt

The markets are always changing, and the successful trader needs to adapt to these changes.

Michael Steinhardt
- Successful
- Traders
Good investing is a peculiar balance between the conviction to follow your ideas and the flexibility to recognize when you have made a mistake.

Michael Steinhardt
The hardest thing over the years has been having the courage to go against the dominant wisdom of the time, to have a view that is at variance with the present consensus and bet that view.

Michael Steinhardt
- Hardest
- Beens
- Consensus
A good trader has to have three things: a chronic inability to accept things at face value, to feel continuously unsettled, and to have humility.

Michael Steinhardt
Time and again, in every market cycle I have witnessed, the extremes of emotion always appear, even among experienced investors. When the world wants to buy only [bonds], you can almost close your eyes and [buy] stocks.

Michael Steinhardt
- World
- Emotion
- Extremes
I was happier when pursuing success than I was when savoring its fruits; the attraction, perhaps the addiction, was in the process, as much as in its end.

Michael Steinhardt

The hardest thing over the years has been having the courage to go against the dominant wisdom of the time to have a view that is at variance with the present consensus and bet that view. The hard part is that the investor must measure himself not by his own perceptions of his performance, but by the objective measure of the market. The market has its own reality. In an immediate emotional sense the market is always right so if you take a variant point of view you will always be bombarded for some time by conventional wisdom as expressed by the market.

Michael Steinhardt
Just as outright euphoria is often a sign of a market top, fear is for sure a sign of a market bottom. Time and time again, in every market cycle I have witnessed, the extremes of emotion always appear, even among experienced investors. When the world wants to buy only treasury bills, you can almost close your eys and get long stocks.

Michael Steinhardt
The balance between confidence and humility is best learned through extensive experience and mistakes.

Michael Steinhardt
- Mistake
- Balance