Burton Greenwald Quotations

When a Merrill Lynch salesman came up to you and tried to sell you a Merrill Lynch fund, you know the salesman didn't want to do it because it raised too many issues.

There's no question investors are swayed by personalities. It's propelled mutual fund managers into the ranks of rock stars.

It's got to be constructive if the person managing the fund has a personal stake in it.

You had dozens of mutual funds with triple-digit returns in 1999, and that catapulted some managers into the stratosphere. But their egos and their ability didn't correlate that greatly.

It's a flight to quality. Investors as well as advisers are seeking out large, blue-chip fund companies that appear to have weathered the storm successfully.

That shouldn't be a driving reason to invest in a new fund. It's appealing, but only after making your decision.

You really must look at your entire portfolio and not look just at the past quarter or even the last year. Extraordinary expectations have been built into fund performance for almost six years now. You've witnessed returns of 20 percent or more in most stock equity funds, but in some cases they're just not sustainable.

On a broader scale, it underscores the importance of asset management being the primary business of a firm rather than just one sector.

When the market is going up, people don't assume risk. You have to realize the type of investments that appreciate in excess can be just as volatile on the downside.

You are going to see a flood of deals from insurance companies and banks that started proprietary fund families and have been unable to successfully distribute them through their captive sales organizations.