Why you need a vulture’s patience at Nairobi bourse

Patience is an investing virtue that most stock investors have forgotten. Why might patience pay off? Well, for a start, it’s very difficult to time the market, and missing just a couple of the best days can seriously affect your pot of money.

To even stand a chance of being successful with short-term trading you need to dedicate time and resources to it – something the average investor just doesn’t have in abundance. The only answer to long-term success is staying patient. Below is a collection of investing quotes from proven patient investors – a little encouragement in these turbulent times.

“Our stay-put behaviour reflects our view that the stock market serves as a relocation centre at which money is moved from the active to the patient,”—Warren Buffett. Remember this is from a man who by the time he turned 50, he only held one percent of his current holdings (estimated at Sh8.6 trillion). He turned 88 this year.

“The world is full of foolish gamblers and they will not do as well as the patient investors.” —Charles Munger. Charles is Mr Buffett’s billionaire second-in-command at Berkshire Hathaway.

“It is possible to make money – and a great deal of money – in the stock market. But it can be done overnight or by haphazard buying and selling. The big profits go to the intelligent, careful and patient investor, not to the reckless and overeager speculator.” —J Paul Getty (Patriarch of the Getty Family).

“Patience is essential.”— Howard Marks. Marks is known for his prescient investment memos, which warned about the 2008 financial crisis and the dot-com bubble. He manages Oaktree, which oversees over Sh10 trillion of assets.

“One of the best rules anybody can learn about investing is to do nothing, absolutely nothing, unless there is something to do.”— James Rogers. James is the co-founder of the Quantum Fund and Soros Fund management.

“Throughout all my years of investing I’ve found that the big money was never made in the buying or the selling. The big money was made in the waiting.”— Jessie Livermore. Boy! plunger knew the usefulness of staying patient.

“People always want investments to go up like a line…that’s just not reality. You make 80 percent of your money in 20 percent of the time in investing and you have to be patient.” — Jeffrey Gundlach. Jeff is arguably the next Bonds King (taking after Bill Gross).

Paul Sameulson, one of the most influential American economist and first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences said, “Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take your money to Las Vegas.”

“…See how the farmers waits for the land to yield its crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too be patient and strengthen your hearts…” James 5: 7-8. Apostle James reminds us to invest like a farmer.

In summary, no doubt patience ranks high as an important ingredient (far greater than smarts) to achieving market success. So for this season, it’s best to remember these words and sit tight.