Ben Graham, my friend and teacher, long ago described the mental attitude toward market fluctuations that I believe to be most conducive to investment success. He said that you should imagine market quotations as coming from a remarkably accommodating fellow named Mr. Market who is your partner in a private business. Without fail, Mr. Market appears daily and names a price at which he will either buy your interest or sell you his.

Even though the business that the two of you own may have economic characteristics that are stable, Mr. Market's quotations will be anything but. For, sad to say, the poor fellow has incurable emotional problems. At times he feels euphoric and can see only the favorable factors affecting the business. When in that mood, he names a very high buy-sell price because he fears that you will snap up his interest and rob him of imminent gains. At other times he is depressed and can see nothing but trouble ahead for both the business and the world. On these occasions he will name a very low price, since he is terrified that you will unload your interest on him.

Mr. Market has another endearing characteristic: He doesn't mind being ignored. If his quotation is uninteresting to you today, he will be back with a new one tomorrow. Transactions are strictly at your option. Under these conditions, the more manic-depressive his behavior, the better for you.

But, like Cinderella at the ball, you must heed one warning or everything will turn into pumpkins and mice: Mr. Market is there to serve you, not to guide you. It is his pocketbook, not his wisdom, that you will find useful. If he shows up some day in a particularly foolish mood, you are free to either ignore him or to take advantage of him, but it will be disastrous if you fall under his influence. Indeed, if you aren't certain that you understand and can value your business far better than Mr. Market, you don't belong in the game. As they say in poker, "If you've been in the game 30 minutes and you don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy."

Excerpt from Berkshire Hathaway's 1987 annual report

@muganda...nice piece. And the part I liked most is "Indeed, if you aren't certain that you understand and can value your business far better than Mr. Market, you don't belong in the game"

pole muganda on missing scangroup...which if I remember you were very bullish in the sh.20 range.

As for me scangroup doesn't exist..I have completely blotted it out of my mind.

If only we sould short sell.

The NSE looks crazy to me the more i stay in it. Sometimes things are so illogical and helter-skelter ... more mirroring an "uneducated" person's reactions than anything else ...

Lakini, just on paper... I doubt he can realize even 70% if he said he was selling! [Not saying that I am saying I can do better!!!]

This is wealth he 'created'... From 1-man agency to this... No political patronage... Kudos to the guy!

Remember some idiot MPigs were dissing ScanGroup in parliament when it went public?

BAck in the day the idiots (even some brokers) claimed that ScanGroup was a 'scam' coz the NAV was very low!!!

The fools did not understand the 'earning power' of ScanGroup's employees & structure... Google has a high P/B yet is very profitable... Lakini, our MPigs would not understand!