The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.

The saying expresses a contrarian investing principle: the best opportunities often appear during moments of extreme fear, panic, or social upheaval, when assets are indiscriminately sold and prices detach from long-term value. “Blood in the streets” is a vivid metaphor for crisis—war, riots, crashes, or severe recessions—when most people are desperate to preserve cash and avoid risk. The line implies that disciplined capital, patience, and emotional detachment can turn collective distress into profit. Ethically, it can also be read as a blunt acknowledgment of capitalism’s capacity to reward those positioned to buy when others are forced to sell, highlighting the tension between opportunism and empathy in financial markets.