The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

“The underlying principles of sound investment should not alter from decade to decade, but the application of these principles must be adapted to significant changes in the financial mechanisms and climate.”.

The strategy is rewritten – based on sound investment principles – for the environment. Not every strategy works in every climate. Given enough time, the intelligent investor will recognize patterns in history around investor behavior and know how to put those sound principles into practice. Sound investment principles are the basis of every investment strategy. This is the exact opposite of sound business sense everywhere else, and it is most unlikely that it can lead to lasting success in Wall Street.”

The book is not for speculators or about trading in the markets: “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.

“To invest intelligently in securities one should be forearmed with an adequate knowledge of how the various types of bonds and stocks have actually behaved under varying conditions – some of which, at least, one is likely to meet again in one’s own experience.”.

The key to the book is to provide a basic understanding of investment principles and investor behavior.

Follow Graham and you will profit from folly rather than participate in it.” 8 and 20 – you will not get a poor result from your investments… The sillier the market’s behavior, the greater the opportunity for the business-like investor.

Warren Buffett opens the preface with this: “If you follow the behavioral and business principles that Graham advocates – and if you pay special attention to the invaluable advice in Ch.In doing so, he taught investors how to manage themselves. Graham wanted to teach investors the basic principles needed to navigate markets. Benjamin Graham’s classic was first published in 1949.

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham