William J. O'Neil Quotes

United States, Entrepreneur
March 25, 1933

William J. O'Neil is an American entrepreneur, stockbroker and writer, who founded the stock brokerage firm William O'Neil & Co. Inc in 1963 and the business newspaper Investor's Business Daily in 1983. He is the author of the books How to Make Money in Stocks, 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success and The Successful Investor among others, and is the creator of the CAN SLIM investment strategy.

Also known as Writer

Since the market tends to go in the opposite direction of what the majority of people think, I would say 95% of all these people you hear on TV shows are giving you their personal opinion. And personal opinions are almost always worthless … facts and markets are far more reliable.

William J. O'Neil
- People
- Thinking
- Giving
If you own a portfolio of stocks, you must learn to sell the worst performers first and keep the best a little longer.

William J. O'Neil

Forget the adage buy low and sell high.

William J. O'Neil
- High
- Forget
- Adage
The whole secret to winning and losing in the stock market is to lose the least amount possible when you're not right.

William J. O'Neil
- Winning
- Losing
- Whole
The market has a simple way of whittling all excessive pride and overblown egos down to size. After all, the whole idea is to be completely objective and recognize what the marketplace is telling you, rather than try to prove that the thing you said or did yesterday or six weeks ago was right. The fastest way to take a bath in the stock market or go broke is to try to prove that you are right and the market is wrong.

William J. O'Neil
So the first thing I learned about how to get superior performance is not to buy stocks that are near their lows, but to buy stocks that are coming out of broad bases and beginning to make new highs.

William J. O'Neil
Over-diversification is a hedge for ignorance.

William J. O'Neil
- Ignorance
- Diversification
The majority of unskilled investors stubbornly hold onto their losses when the losses are small and reasonable. They could get out cheaply, but being emotionally involved and human, they keep waiting and hoping until their loss gets much bigger and costs them dearly.

William J. O'Neil
- Waiting
- Humans
- Bigger

90% of the people in the stock market, professionals and amateurs alike, simply haven't done enough homework.

William J. O'Neil
- People
- Enough
- Investment
I've never met a successful pessimist.

William J. O'Neil
- Successful
- Pessimist