stock investor. He is currently a research consultant at Fidelity Investments
. Lynch graduated from Boston College
in 1965 and earned a Master of Business Administration
from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
in 1968.
Lynch was hired as an intern with Fidelity Investments
in 1966 partly because he had been caddying for Fidelity's president
(among others) at Brae Burn Country Club
in Newton, Massachusetts
. He initially covered the paper, chemical, and publishing industries, and when he returned after a two-year Army stint he was hired permanently in 1969.
If you spend more than 14 minutes a year worrying about the market, you've wasted 12 minutes.
The person that turns over the most rocks wins the game. And that's always been my philosophy.
The key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.
I think you have to learn that there's a company behind every stock, and that there's only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies.
In this business if you're good, you're right six times out of ten. You're never going to be right nine times out of ten.
You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don't understand that's going to happen, then you're not ready, you won't do well in the markets.
When stocks are attractive, you buy them. Sure, they can go lower. I've bought stocks at $12 that went to $2, but then they later went to $30. You just don't know when you can find the bottom.
I've found that when the market's going down and you buy funds wisely, at some point in the future you will be happy. You won't get there by reading 'Now is the time to buy.'
Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.