📖Warren Buffett
Patience in Stock Selection
Wait for the perfect pitch in stock selection.
I call investing the greatest business in the world because you never have to swing. You stand at the plate, the pitcher throws you General Motors at 47! U.S. Steel at 39! And nobody calls a strike on you.
🏠 Everyday Analogy
📖 Core Interpretation
Patience in stock selection means waiting for high probability opportunities rather than maximizing activity. Buffett often compares investing to baseball without called strikes: you can let many pitches pass. Patience is active preparation, not passivity. You study continuously, define your strike zone, and act decisively only when price and value diverge enough to justify real conviction.
💎 Key Insight：In investing, you choose when to act unlike baseball.
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❓ Why It Matters
Most damage comes from forced action, not from lack of ideas. Frequent trading increases noise exposure, cost friction, and behavioral mistakes. Investors who ignore patience often buy when excitement is highest and freeze when fear is highest. In practice, they outsource position sizing to market mood instead of disciplined valuation.
🎯 How to Practice
Set explicit entry criteria and keep a prepared watchlist. Spend quiet periods on business research, not on constant price watching. Treat cash as strategic optionality when no setup is attractive. When your price zone appears, execute according to plan, including staged buying. Patience and decisiveness must work together or both lose value.
⚠️ Common Pitfalls
Turning patience into endless indecision.
Waiting for the exact bottom and missing good pricing.
Confusing screen time with analytical progress.
📚 Case Studies
1
Discipline during the technology bubble (1999)
Buffett accepted short term relative underperformance instead of abandoning discipline to chase speculative technology momentum.
✨ Outcome：When the bubble deflated, Berkshire preserved both capital and flexibility.
2
Crisis deployment after long waiting (2008)
During the financial crisis, Berkshire deployed capital into deals such as Goldman Sachs and General Electric with strong terms.
✨ Outcome：Prepared patience converted into attractive risk adjusted returns when others were constrained.
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