Quote 11
If you, the reader, expect to get rich over the years by following some system or leadership in market forecasting, you must be expecting to try to do what countless others are aiming at, and to be able to do it better than your numerous competitors in the market. There is no basis either in logic or in experience for assuming that any typical or average investor can anticipate market movements more successfully than the general public, of which he is himself a part.
Ultimately, Graham didn’t counsel trying to outmanoeuvre the market. He believed in understanding its nature:


Quote 12
The investor with a portfolio of sound stocks should expect their prices to fluctuate, and should neither be concerned by sizable declines nor become excited by sizable advances. He should always remember that market quotations are there for his convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored. He should never buy a stock because it has gone up or sell one because it has gone down. He would not be far wrong if this motto read more simply: “Never buy a stock immediately after a substantial rise or sell one immediately after a substantial drop.”
Graham was almost wiped out by the Wall Street Crash but rebuilt his fortune amid the calamity of the Great Depression. He knew a thing or two about holding your nerve: