CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
More great Money advice
The myth of the market crystal ball
Trying to predict market swings usually results in buying and selling at all the wrong times. (more)
A strong case for market optimism
Believe it or not - you have several good reasons to believe the sky isn't falling. In fact, it may be clearing up. (more)
Investing for the long haul
This isn't the first, or the last time we've faced economic uncertainly, but with 30 or 40 years until retirement, there's no need to rush out of the market. (more)
Special Offer

Calming words for troubled times

For guidance in these unsettled days, we corralled some of the best minds in investing. What we got was wisdom, perspective, reassurance - and a couple of TV viewing suggestions.

1 of 19
BACK NEXT
William Bernstein
William Bernstein
•  Send feedback to Money Magazine
Financial theorist and author of "The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio"

Get out of the market? Of course not, silly. If you think about it logically, you are rewarded for owning stocks precisely because they are risky; the dicier things look, the more money you can expect to make in the long run.

History bears this out: The lowest returns were earned by buying high when there was a lot of blue sky - think 1928, 1969, 1999. And the best returns were earned by buying low in 1932, 1942 and 1982, when it looked like the whole world was going to hell.

One more thing: Stop watching CNBC. It will make you stupid and poor. If you must watch, turn off the sound. It becomes an excellent substitute for Animal Planet.



NEXT: Henry Blodget
Last updated April 28 2008: 1:20 PM ET
Due to a production error, an earlier version of this story reversed the photos of William Bernstein and Peter L. Bernstein, who is also featured in this piece.
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Live Quotes automatically refresh, but individual equities are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time. † - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Disclaimer
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.