The silver investing bullet - doesn't exist

"When a market, an individual or an investment technique produces impressive returns for a while, it generally attracts excessive (and unquestioning) devotion. I call this solution du jour the 'silver bullet'.

Investors are always looking for it. Cal it the holy grail or the free lunch, but everyone wants a ticket to riches without risk. Few people question whether it can exist or why it should be available to them. At the bottom line, hope springs eternal.

But the silver bullet doesn't exist. No strategy can produce high rates of return without risk. And nobody has all the answers; we're all just human. Markets are highly dynamic. and, among other things, they function over time to take away the opportunity for unusual profits. Unskeptical belief that the silver bullet is at hand eventually leads to capital punishment."

-- Howard Marks, 5-31-2002