The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Bestseller on Value Investing

List Price: $30.00 Amazon.com Price: $21.00

• Media: Hardcover
• Publisher: HarperCollins (1985)
• ISBN: 0060155477
• Average Customer Review: Based on 49 reviews.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: 452
  

Some readers complain about how dated the text is, but Ben Graham was writing for an audience witnessing the equity market hot-air bubble of the late sixties. The pop that followed in 1973 was no accident. Just recognizing the parallels between the high-flyers of that decade and those of our current market make this worthwhile reading. Likewise, readers who assimilate any of Graham's notions of value will heretofore comprehend Benjamin Graham's own inclination to plunge into the market when most investors were leaving it for dead in 1974.

Warren Buffett's lecture in the appendix ("The Superinvestors of Graham & Doddsville"), both a nice encapsulation of value investing and a refutation of the efficient market theory, is itself worth the price of the book. But there is much else in here that is worthwhile to the patient reader, who will likely return to Graham's ideas time and again in his/her investment career.


The first book that you should read about investing!

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is a classic.  Considered by many to be the father of value investing and modern security analysis,  Benjamin Graham started working on Wall Street in 1914, a time when portfolio management was based more on unsupportable impressions and inside information.  Benjamin Graham brought a disciplined and intelligent approach to the profession.

After reading The Intelligent Investor in his senior year at the University of Nebraska, Warren Buffett was so impressed that he traveled to New York to study with Benjamin Graham at Columbia University.  Warren Buffett once said that he was "15 percent (Philip) Fisher and 85 percent Benjamin Graham."  The training that Warren Buffett received from Benjamin Graham was critical to his success.  If you read this book, you'll know why.

The Intelligent Investor's emphasis is on investment principles and investors' attitudes.  Several comparisons of specific securities are included to demonstrate important elements in security selection.  The book provides a guide to avoiding the loss of investment capital as well as identifying securities which are likely to provide superior returns with a margin of safety.


This Should Be Your First Guide to Investing

This is the classic investing guide, made more famous by the success of Warren Buffet as he continues to follow Graham's thinking. Often, more money can be made in value investing than in today's popular day trading or in becoming a momentum player. The most valuable lesson I learned the first time I read this book is that minimizing losses is more important than trying to make large gains. Sometimes it is hard to sit and let your assets accumulate, but that is one of the principles of this book. Another is to learn how to evaluate and analyze a company to build the right portfolio, and to build a portfolio with only stocks that you really understand and a number that you can follow. There are also lessons here about when to buy. THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR should be your first guide to investing, and your last as you review the principles often. It is also important to learn how to recognize companies that will continue to build value. For example, look for logical add-on businesses, or easy ways to expand through the same distribution channel, or serve the customer better. Another approach is to look for companies that are doing the right things. Look for companies that understand the importance of measuring and measure everything they can in the critical activities for success, go beyond today's best practices to develop both the future best practices and the ideal best practices, and then continually repeat the process for even better ideas. You can read more about this process in THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION, a new book by Donald Mitchell, Carol Coles and Robert Metz that describes how to avoid the common stalls and continuously stay ahead of others.

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