John Paulson Quotes
104 John Paulson Quotes (John Alfred Paulson, Paulson Partners)
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No one strategy is correct all the time.
John Paulson
I had to swallow my pride, buckle down the hatches, and just be patient.
John Paulson
Nothing is right in all markets at all times.
John Paulson
I figured I’d always make money…
John Paulson
We found the El Dorado of investments. Are we going to just dip our toes in?
John Paulson
[On the opportunity in 2007 to earn $15 billion across of of his funds.] Those types of investments don’t come around very often.
John Paulson
Generally, you don’t know you have a good attorney until you run into a problem.
John Paulson
Fear-driven periods in the past have been used as buying opportunities for savvy investors.
John Paulson
Many investors make the mistake of buying high and selling low while the exact opposite is the right strategy to outperform over the long term.
John Paulson
I got a piggy bank and the goal was to fill it up…
John Paulson
I loved having cash in my pocket.
John Paulson
Why not go for the jugular?
John Paulson
How can smart guys get into these positions?
John Paulson
I avoid the media.
John Paulson
Sometimes it’s difficult to interpret the markets…
John Paulson
We’re not going to play a winning hand every day.
John Paulson
Our goal is not to outperform all the time – that’s not possible. We want to outperform over time.
John Paulson
You can’t think about the past. You have to think about the future.
John Paulson
[In 2012 on what he thinks made him very successful] Secret sauce – Experience, focus, smarts and desire.
John Paulson
Investors that do the best, and have done the best, are those that stay and compound at above-average rates over the long term.
John Paulson
[In July 2007] We feel that we are in a credit bubble.
John Paulson
[In 2012] We’ve gone back to our traditional strategy…
John Paulson
[In 2003 on his favorite quote – one from Winston Churchill] Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.
John Paulson
[On Gary Shilling’s economic analysis in late 2006] Boy, if you’re right, the financial system will fall apart.
John Paulson
Chairman Waxman, the problem in the U.S. financial system is one of solvency. In general, financial institutions are undercapitalised and have insufficient tangible common equity to support their overlevered and deteriorating balance sheets.
John Paulson
Remarkably, the average tangible common equity to total tangible assets for the 10 largest U.S. banks is only 3.4 percent, or 30 percent leverage. The solution to solve the problem is to strengthen their balance sheets by raising equity both privately and publicly.
John Paulson
To protect investors against the risk in the financial markets, we purchased protection through credit default swaps on debt securities we thought would decline in value due to weak credit underwriting. As credit spreads widened and the value of those securities fell, we realized substantial gains for our investors.
John Paulson
Let me tell you a little about what I think I do. I think what I am is a risk arbitrageur.
John Paulson
It’s very easy to compute what the returns are from a spread, but what’s not easy to compute is what the risks of the deal breaking apart are. There’s financing risk. There’s legal risk. There’s regulatory risk.
John Paulson
[On his first lesson in bankruptcy investing and warrants through LTV] It was a portfolio position I barely even knew I had and it couldn’t have been more speculative, but it turned into a high multiple return. Those warrants are tricky little instruments.
John Paulson
[On having no interest in business in 1973 when he entered college.] Nothing in business was fashionable. It was all about counterculture.
John Paulson
[On hearing that the risk arbitrage department at Goldman Sachs produced the most profitable partners] That’s when I got very intrigued with both M&A and risk arbitrage.
John Paulson
I decided I’d go to Harvard, get my MBA, and then work in M&A and then risk arbitrage. That was my strategy.
John Paulson
[On a case study approach method whilst at University] When I look back on the experience, it taught me how to analyze situations quickly and how to articulate myself to other people. It showed me how to try and convince people to my way of seeing things.
John Paulson
[On using his marketing knowledge to grow his business.] You know, one of the ways we grew was not by coming up with more products but by reformulating the same product.
John Paulson
While we were not pioneers in the hedge fund space, we were early in its evolution. By 1996, we thought it may be the time to launch an international product. It was the same portfolio; Paulson International just targeted a foreign investor base and added all the bells and whistles to appeal to international clients. [Today the fund is about four times the size of his domestic fund.]
John Paulson
You know, ‘enhanced’, ‘new,’ and ‘improved,’ the name was right out of consumer product marketing. And ‘Paulson Enhanced’ is the same exact portfolio as the merge and international funds, only it’s twice as much leverage. These marketing terms helped me create products for new markets and differentiate the product without more work.
John Paulson
[On his first job after graduating from Harvard Business School at Boston Consulting Group (BCG)] Although is wasn’t ultimately were my heart was, my experience with BCG was very useful to me in terms of understanding business strategy and what makes one business better or more valuable than others.
John Paulson
[On hearing Jerry Kohlberg (KKR –Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts) speak in 1979 whilst at Harvard Business School (Making a $17 million profit on a $500,000 investment purchasing a company for $34 million. They financed the acquisition with $20 million in bank debt, $14 million in subdebt, and $500,000 in equity. The bank debt was secured, while the subdebt got 16 percent plus warrants. KKR was able to sell the firm for $51 million two years later, pocketing the $17 million profit.] It was a wild amount of money to be making on an investment at that time.
John Paulson
[On deciding at this point to focus on leveraged buyouts instead of investment banking] The principal firms were smaller but they made a lot more money. And the principals were a lot richer.
John Paulson
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