STREET DOGS

AN ECONOMIC forecaster is like a cross-eyed javelin thrower: they don’t win many accuracy contests, but they keep the crowd’s attention.” — Anonymous

“We’ve long felt that the only value of stock forecasts is to make fortune tellers look good. Short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grownups who behave in the market like children.” — Warren Buffett

“I knew I could not predict anything, and that is why we decided to follow trends, and that is why we’ve been so successful. “We simply follow trends. “No matter how ridiculous those trends appear to be at the beginning, and no matter how extended or how irrational they seem at the end, we follow trends.” — John W Henry

“If you already know the futility of market forecasting but feel that you simply must predict the market, I will reveal how you can be as good as the best market gurus: when you get up each and every morning for the rest of your life, make this astonishing prediction: ‘The market will be up today.’

“If you make that your prediction every day you will be as accurate as some of the best people in the field, having achieved a long-run accuracy of about 60%. Despite people’s fears of bear markets, the market spends most of its time advancing, not declining.” — Braden Glett

“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." — Peter Drucker

"There are only two types of forecasts — lucky or wrong!” — Quoted by Control magazine Michel Pireu — E-mail pireum@streetdogs.co.za