When a shoeshine boy knows as much as I do about the stock market, it’s time to get out.

Quote Investigator finds the anecdote first in Joseph F. Dinneen’s The Kennedy Family (1959), told by Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. to an unnamed reporter, thirty years after the crash. Baruch’s second memoir, The Public Years (1960), mentions a shoeshine boy giving the day’s financial news among taxi drivers, a beggar and his cook who all had market tips, but says nothing of leaving the market because of one; Fortune (15 April 1996, John Rothchild) linked both men. The wording attributed to Baruch is a retelling; no text of his with these words was found. The line Wikiquote prints under Baruch (“When beggars and shoeshine boys, barbers and beauticians can tell you how to get rich…”, dated to My Own Story, 1957) is not in the memoir passage QI quotes, and the 1957 volume was not seen here. Searched here: QI’s investigation and Wikiquote; not the memoirs themselves.

1. 1 August 1928Before it · credited to H. B. Johnson, Mansfield Hardwood Lumber CompanyA lumber trade journal reports a manufacturer saying a bootblack knows as much about the market as anyone: the idea, not yet the anecdote.The Lumber Trade Journal, 1 August 1928, “Two Hardwood Clubs Hold Meeting at Monroe”, p. 20, column 2. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 1959Earliest found · credited to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.Dinneen’s book prints Kennedy’s account of leaving the market after a Wall Street shoeshine boy told him what stocks would do.When a time comes that a shoeshine boy knows as much as I do about what is going on in the stock market, tells me so and is entirely correct, there is something the matter either with me or with the market and it’s time for me to get outJoseph F. Dinneen, The Kennedy Family (Little, Brown, Boston, 1959), chapter 3, pp. 34–35. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 1960Credited to Bernard BaruchBaruch’s memoir describes the 1920s mania, with the shoeshine boy and a beggar giving tips; it is the passage later linked with the legend. The Saturday Evening Post, 1 October 1960, p. 21, column 1, printed the passage in an excerpt.The shoeshine boy could give you a summary of the day’s financial news as he worked with rag and polish.Bernard Baruch, Baruch: The Public Years (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960), ch. 13 “The Great Crash”, p. 220. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
4. 18 November 1969Spread · credited to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.A Boston paper’s obituary of Kennedy retells the shoeshine story as his own reason for leaving the market.Boston Evening Globe, 18 November 1969, “Joseph P. Kennedy: The father of destiny’s children”, p. 19, column 4. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
5. 15 April 1996Spread · credited to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Bernard BaruchFortune pairs the Kennedy story with Baruch’s description of the pre-crash scene.Fortune, vol. 133, no. 7, 15 April 1996, John Rothchild, “When the shoeshine boys talk STOCKS”, p. 99. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
6. 15 April 1996Reworded · credited to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.A critical biography calls the shoeshine story “baloney” and says Guy Currier’s warning saved Kennedy; this bears on the legend’s credibility, not on Baruch. (The book appeared in 1996; its month is not known here, and the date only keeps the trail in order.)Ronald Kessler, The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded (Warner Books, New York, 1996), ch. 7 “Crash”, p. 82. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source

A Wall Street legend says a financier got out of the market before the crash of 1929 after hearing stock tips from a shoeshine boy. It is told of both Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Bernard Baruch.

When the least informed are confident about a market, it is overheated and about to fall.

It is told as Baruch’s own epiphany; his memoir says he began selling in 1928 for other reasons and only lists the shoeshine boy among the tipsters of the time.

No source shows Baruch saying these words; the story is a legend of 1929.

Money, Reason, Wisdom

• If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. (not found)
• To love people as they are is impossible. And yet one must. Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Buy when there’s blood in the streets. (not found)
• If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. Mark Twain
• The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence. (not found) Charles Bukowski

• quoteinvestigator.com/2026/08/16/shoeshine-stock
• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernard_Baruch

“When a shoeshine boy knows as much as I do about the stock market, it’s time to get out.” Attributed to Bernard Baruch. No. Told first of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1959); Baruch’s memoir mentions the shoeshine boy but not as his signal. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/when-a-shoeshine-boy-knows-as-much-as-i-do-about-the-stock-market/ (checked 30 October 2026).

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