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Warren Buffett's pick - as the best book written on his sort of investment approach to the market. Buffett's investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, is the 9th largest company on the SP500, so he must know something investment, right? As Buffett points out in numerous public places (including clips of him being interviewed, see Youtube), Chapter 8 (on market fluctuations and how to intelligently deal with them) and Chapter 20 (on the risk of catathrophic loss and how to intelligently deal with it) are the most important chapters. The Intelligent Investor was originally written in 1949, so many of Graham's examples are very dated. However the advice itself, as Buffett notes, is timeless. Each chapter in this particular Revised Edition has been updated by Jason Zweig with newer examples that extend to 2003. Zweig's writing and examples are clearer than Graham's in my opinion. There is enough here for what Graham calls the "Defensive Investor" (those of us who buy and hold index funds for decades, essentially dollar cost averaging, allocation, re-allocation, diversification etc. etc.) to be worth a read, although much of the book pertains to the "Enterprising Investor" (those of us who aren't primarily Defensive Investors). Age old advice about confusing speculation with investing and psychological / emotional factors (such as resisting the temptation to sell when the market tanks or buying stocks at excesssively high prices when the market is bullish) abound. Good time tested advice that you probably won't hear from your stock broker or your cryptocurrency seller Read full review
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Last year, I actively made deals and tried different securities in the market. This year I have a retrospective - I comprehend the accumulated experience and draw conclusions regarding my investments. And this book is the best you can find if you have such goals. I believe that only Graham’s text can be read, without the comments of modern investors, only the fundamental foundations.
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The Intelligent Investor appeared first in 1949 and was published initially by Harper & Row. I've followed the Warren Buffet phenomenon for a couple of months now. It is generally accepted that The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham was first read by Warren Buffet in early 1950. Warren Buffet himself said that the book provided a framework for his investment approach and that he is still adding to this framework today. Robert G. Hagstrom Jr. concluded in his book, The Warren Buffet Way (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1994)that Warren Buffet accepted the priciple outlined in the book (the principle of value investing) and adapted the principle or evolved. Says Hagstrom: "Even today, Buffet continues to embrace Graham's primary idea, the theory of the margin of safety." The commentary by Jason Zweig in The Intelligent Investor helps the layman to make sense of Grahams writings in todays environment. As I am writing this commentary, the NYSE has seen the greatest losses in my lifetime dropping from 14000 to 8000. Truly scary stuff, but less so through Zweig's eyes. I shall refrain on giving negative commentary, as I am not qualified to do so. The next read after this: Where are the customer's yachts by Fred Schwed. adampotgieter@yahoo.comRead full review
First, I just want to say that many of you might find this book boring to read. If that turn out to be the case, you can read the commentary (which uses more relevant and recent examples) for each chapter by Jason Zweig, which is worth the price of the book alone. I got tempted to read the commentary only but I forced myself to read the entire book and I'm glad I did it. Warren Buffett is right, this is the best book on investing ever written, by far. This is one of the reasons in my opinion why Warren himself never write an investment book (plus the fact that it is not easy to explain Warren's intelligent on a paper. Instead just learn from what he does). Now about the content of this book, it tells you everything you need to know about the investing field (not only stocks, but business in general, bonds, macro economy to some extent, psychological factor of the market, strategy for defensive and speculative investors etc). Secondly, Warren Buffett highly recommend this book and his favorites are chapter 20 (Margin of safety) and chapter 8 (Investor and market fulctuation). Margin of safety should be the central concept of your investment, and understanding how the market works (and the mood and inconsistencies of Mr Market) should be the second thing that you need to know before jumping into the market. I also find the chapter 11 (security analysis for lay investor) very educating as it teaches us to value the future of a business (breaking down into 3 area: 1. Long term prospect 2. Quality and conduct of management 3. Financial strength and capital structure Additionally the comparison of eight companies (chapter 18) very practical and eye opening. I won't spill the content right here but when I read them, it feels like common sense to me, but back (during the tech bubble) then I was involved in several similar stocks that I shouldn't have touched with a ten feet pole. The bonus chapter "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville" by Warren Buffett is a classic reading. This article shows how inefficient the market can be, and argue that most of the time the market is not efficient. I have become a believer that the market is not efficient (after many years believing that the market is very efficient as the business school has taught me) This book also cover several useful metrics that we can use to value a company in addition to just looking at EPS or PE ratio, such as the ROIC (Return on Invested Capital) etc. In general, Ben Graham focuses a bit more on capital preservation (shown by focusing on margin of safety, dividend policy, and stocks priced below its tangible book value strategy.) which I think are really important, but one need to understand that there's more to investment than just those things (such as long term groth/the business itself and management) which are also covered in book. This book would not serve as your investing philosophy, but it should help you create your own investing philosophies. It will help you find what your strength (defensive or enterprising) is and find/form your circle of competence. And as a minimum, this book will increase your confident when dealing with the stock market. Last but not least, also read "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits" by Philip A. Fisher and "One up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch to complement this book. Happy Investing!Read full review
When purchasing this edition one must understand that is not the original edition written by Benjamin Graham and that it is not of the same quality of knowledge. This addition in its own right has very valuable insight that one an and should learn. I would highly recommend this edition in addition to the original. Perhaps best read after the original unedited edition by Benjamin Graham.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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