The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition)
Author byBenjamin Graham, Jason Zweig
Book Publishers Collins Business
Publish Date 2003
Language. English
Category ?
Book Code 240
Pages 641
Rs 1800
Book Quality Black Paper
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About
The Classic Text Annotated to Update Graham's Timeless Wisdom for Today's Market Conditions
The greatest investment advisor of the 20th century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham's philosophy of "value investing" - which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies - has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market Bible ever since its original publication in 1949.
Over the years, market developments have proven the wisdom of Graham's strategies. While preserving the integrity of Graham's original text, this revised edition includes updated commentary by noted financial journalist Jason Zweig, whose perspective incorporates the realities of today's market, draws parallels between Graham's examples and today's financial headlines, and gives listeners a more thorough understanding of how to apply Graham's principles.
Vital and indispensable, this HarperBusiness Essentials edition of The Intelligent Investor is the most important book you will ever listen on how to reach your financial goals.
More than one million hardcovers sold Now available for the first time in paperback The Classic Text Annotated to Update Graham's Timeless Wisdom for Today's Market Conditions The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham's philosophy of "value investing" -- which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies -- has made "The Intelligent Investor" the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949. Over the years, market developments have proven the wisdom of Graham's strategies. While preserving the integrity of Graham's original text, this revised edition includes updated commentary by noted financial journalist Jason Zweig, whose perspective incorporates the realities of today's market, draws parallels between Graham's examples and today's financial headlines, and gives readers a more thorough understanding of how to apply Graham's principles. Vital and indispensable, this HarperBusiness Essentials edition of "The Intelligent Investor" is the most important book you will ever read on how to reach your financial goals.
BENJAMIN GRAHAM
1894–1976
Several years ago Ben Graham, then almost eighty, expressed to a friend
the thought that he hoped every day to do “something foolish, something
creative and something generous.”
The inclusion of that first whimsical goal reflected his knack for pack-
aging ideas in a form that avoided any overtones of sermonizing or
self-importance. Although his ideas were powerful, their delivery was
unfailingly gentle.
Readers of this magazine need no elaboration of his achievements as
measured by the standard of creativity. It is rare that the founder of a disci-
pline does not find his work eclipsed in rather short order by successors.
But over forty years after publication of the book that brought structure
and logic to a disorderly and confused activity, it is difficult to think of pos-
sible candidates for even the runner-up position in the field of security
analysis. In an area where much looks foolish within weeks or months
after publication, Ben’s principles have remained sound—their value often
enhanced and better understood in the wake of financial storms that
demolished flimsier intellectual structures. His counsel of soundness
brought unfailing rewards to his followers—even to those with natural
abilities inferior to more gifted practitioners who stumbled while follow-
ing counsels of brilliance or fashion.
A remarkable aspect of Ben’s dominance of his professional field was
that he achieved it without that narrowness of mental activity that concen-
trates all effort on a single end. It was, rather, the incidental by-product of
an intellect whose breadth almost exceeded definition. Certainly I have
never met anyone with a mind of similar scope. Virtually total recall,
unending fascination with new knowledge, and an ability to recast it in a
form applicable to seemingly unrelated problems made exposure to his
thinking in any field a delight.
But his third imperative—generosity—was where he succeeded beyond
all others. I knew Ben as my teacher, my employer, and my friend. In each
relationship—just as with all his students, employees, and friends—there
was an absolutely open-ended, no-scores-kept generosity of ideas, time,
and spirit. If clarity of thinking was required, there was no better place to
go. And if encouragement or counsel was needed, Ben was there.
Walter Lippmann spoke of men who plant trees that other men will sit
under. Ben Graham was such a man.
INTRODUCTION:
What This Book Expects to Accomplish
T he purpose of this book is to supply, in a form suitable for lay-
men, guidance in the adoption and execution of an investment pol-
icy. Comparatively little will be said here about the technique of
analyzing securities; attention will be paid chiefly to investment
principles and investors’ attitudes. We shall, however, provide a
number of condensed comparisons of specific securities—chiefly in
pairs appearing side by side in the New York Stock Exchange list—
in order to bring home in concrete fashion the important elements
involved in specific choices of common stocks.
But much of our space will be devoted to the historical patterns
of financial markets, in some cases running back over many
decades. To invest intelligently in securities one should be fore-
armed with an adequate knowledge of how the various types of
bonds and stocks have actually behaved under varying condi-
tions—some of which, at least, one is likely to meet again in one’s
own experience. No statement is more true and better applicable to
Wall Street than the famous warning of Santayana: “Those who do
not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Our text is directed to investors as distinguished from specula-
tors, and our first task will be to clarify and emphasize this now all
but forgotten distinction. We may say at the outset that this is not a
“how to make a million” book. There are no sure and easy paths to
riches on Wall Street or anywhere else. It may be well to point up
what we have just said by a bit of financial history—especially
since there is more than one moral to be drawn from it. In the cli-
mactic year 1929 John J. Raskob, a most important figure nationally
as well as on Wall Street, extolled the blessings of capitalism in an
article in the Ladies’ Home Journal, entitled “Everybody Ought to Be
1 2 Introduction
Rich.” * His thesis was that savings of only $15 per month invested
in good common stocks—with dividends reinvested—would pro-
duce an estate of $80,000 in twenty years against total contributions
of only $3,600. If the General Motors tycoon was right, this was
indeed a simple road to riches. How nearly right was he? Our
rough calculation—based on assumed investment in the 30 stocks
making up the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)—indicates
that if Raskob’s prescription had been followed during 1929–1948,
the investor’s holdings at the beginning of 1949 would have been
worth about $8,500. This is a far cry from the great man’s promise
of $80,000, and it shows how little reliance can be placed on such
optimistic forecasts and assurances. But, as an aside, we should
remark that the return actually realized by the 20-year operation
would have been better than 8% compounded annually—and this
despite the fact that the investor would have begun his purchases
with the DJIA at 300 and ended with a valuation based on the 1948
closing level of 177. This record may be regarded as a persuasive
argument for the principle of regular monthly purchases of strong
common stocks through thick and thin—a program known as
“dollar-cost averaging.”
Since our book is not addressed to speculators, it is not meant
for those who trade in the market. Most of these people are guided
by charts or other largely mechanical means of determining the
right moments to buy and sell. The one principle that applies to
nearly all these so-called “technical approaches” is that one should
buy because a stock or the market has gone up and one should sell
because it has declined. This is the exact opposite of sound business
sense everywhere else, and it is most unlikely that it can lead to
* Raskob (1879–1950) was a director of Du Pont, the giant chemical com-
pany, and chairman of the finance committee at General Motors. He also
served as national chairman of the Democratic Party and was the driving
force behind the construction of the Empire State Building. Calculations by
finance professor Jeremy Siegel confirm that Raskob’s plan would have
grown to just under $9,000 after 20 years, although inflation would have
eaten away much of that gain. For the best recent look at Raskob’s views on
long-term stock investing, see the essay by financial adviser William Bern-
stein at www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/197/raskob.htm. 3 What This Book Expects to Accomplish
lasting success on Wall Street. In our own stock-market experience
and observation, extending over 50 years, we have not known a
single person who has consistently or lastingly made money by
thus “following the market.” We do not hesitate to declare that this
approach is as fallacious as it is popular. We shall illustrate what
we have just said—though, of course this should not be taken as
proof—by a later brief discussion of the famous Dow theory for
trading in the stock market.*
Since its first publication in 1949, revisions of The Intelligent
Investor have appeared at intervals of approximately five years. In
updating the current version we shall have to deal with quite a
number of new developments since the 1965 edition was written.
These include:
1. An unprecedented advance in the interest rate on high-grade
bonds.
2. A fall of about 35% in the price level of leading common
stocks, ending in May 1970. This was the highest percentage
decline in some 30 years. (Countless issues of lower quality
had a much larger shrinkage.)
3. A persistent inflation of wholesale and consumer’s prices,
which gained momentum even in the face of a decline of gen-
eral business in 1970.
4. The rapid development of “conglomerate” companies, fran-
chise operations, and other relative novelties in business and
finance. (These include a number of tricky devices such as “let-
ter stock,” 1 proliferation of stock-option warrants, misleading
names, use of foreign banks, and others.)†
* Graham’s “brief discussion” is in two parts, on p. 33 and pp. 191–192.
For more detail on the Dow Theory, see http://viking.som.yale.edu/will/
dow/dowpage.html.
† Mutual funds bought “letter stock” in private transactions, then immedi-
ately revalued these shares at a higher public price (see Graham’s definition
on p. 579). That enabled these “go-go” funds to report unsustainably high
returns in the mid-1960s. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
cracked down on this abuse in 1969, and it is no longer a concern for fund
investors. Stock-option warrants are explained in Chapter 16. 4 Introduction
5. Bankruptcy of our largest railroad, excessive short- and long-
term debt of many formerly strongly entrenched companies,
and even a disturbing problem of solvency among Wall Street
houses.*
6. The advent of the “performance” vogue in the management of
investment funds, including some bank-operated trust funds,
with disquieting results.
These phenomena will have our careful consideration, and some
will require changes in conclusions and emphasis from our previ-
ous edition. The underlying principles of sound investment should
not alter from decade to decade, but the application of these princi-
ples must be adapted to significant changes in the financial mecha-
nisms and climate.
The last statement was put to the test during the writing of the
present edition, the first draft of which was finished in January
1971. At that time the DJIA was in a strong recovery from its 1970
low of 632 and was advancing toward a 1971 high of 951, with
attendant general optimism. As the last draft was finished, in
November 1971, the market was in the throes of a new decline, car-
rying it down to 797 with a renewed general uneasiness about its
future. We have not allowed these fluctuations to affect our general
attitude toward sound investment policy, which remains substan-
tially unchanged since the first edition of this book in 1949.
The extent of the market’s shrinkage in 1969–70 should have
served to dispel an illusion that had been gaining ground dur-
ing the past two decades. This was that leading common stocks
could be bought at any time and at any price, with the assurance not
only of ultimate profit but also that any intervening loss would soon
be recouped by a renewed advance of the market to new high lev-
* The Penn Central Transportation Co., then the biggest railroad in the
United States, sought bankruptcy protection on June 21, 1970—shocking
investors, who had never expected such a giant company to go under (see
p. 423). Among the companies with “excessive” debt Graham had in mind
were Ling-Temco-Vought and National General Corp. (see pp. 425 and
463). The “problem of solvency” on Wall Street emerged between 1968
and 1971, when several prestigious brokerages suddenly went bust.
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