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Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street
“No intelligent investor should fail to read and understand the works of Benjamin Graham. This fine book provides a bird’s-eye view of his investment perspectives; it is also a compelling biography of his remarkable life.”—John Bogle, chairman and founder, Vanguard Group
An accesssible guide to the philosphy and ideas of "the father of value investing", Benjamin Grahm.
The late Benjamin Graham built a fortune following his own Invest in low-priced, solidly run companies with good dividends. Diversify with a wide variety of stocks and bonds. Defend your shareholders’ rights. Be patient and think for yourself. In an era when manipulators controlled the market, Graham taught himself and others the value of reliable information about a company’s past and present performance.
Times and the market have changed but his advice still holds true for today’s investors. In Benjamin Graham on Value Investing , Janet Lowe provides an incisive introduction to Graham’s investment ideas, as well as captivating portrait of the man himself. All types of investors will learn the insights of a financial genius, almost as though Graham himself were alive and preaching his gospel.
An accesssible guide to the philosphy and ideas of "the father of value investing", Benjamin Grahm.
The late Benjamin Graham built a fortune following his own Invest in low-priced, solidly run companies with good dividends. Diversify with a wide variety of stocks and bonds. Defend your shareholders’ rights. Be patient and think for yourself. In an era when manipulators controlled the market, Graham taught himself and others the value of reliable information about a company’s past and present performance.
Times and the market have changed but his advice still holds true for today’s investors. In Benjamin Graham on Value Investing , Janet Lowe provides an incisive introduction to Graham’s investment ideas, as well as captivating portrait of the man himself. All types of investors will learn the insights of a financial genius, almost as though Graham himself were alive and preaching his gospel.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Janet Lowe
44 books35 followersJanet Celesta Lowe was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and writer.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 2, 2008
Combines a bio of Benjamin Graham, with some of his insights. Short on value investing principles, the book made me more interested in Graham's writings themselves. I can't wait for the newly revised edition of his Securities Analysis to hit the shelves this September 2008.
August 15, 2010
Graham was an amateur economist, full-time philanderer, and the father of value investing. The book is written indifferently, with an aim to please everyone Graham knew, but has some great passages. It's a cigarette butt, so to speak.
August 10, 2016
If you’ve already read Benjamin Graham’s Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis, and want to read a biography of the father of value investing, you should check out this book.
August 22, 2018
More than a book on value investing this is a book describing the history and person of Benjamin Graham written by one of today’s most prominent business writers. It’s a biography, not an investment text and together with the 1996 posthumously published, and never really finished, The Memoirs of the Dean of Wall Street, by Graham himself, the book is probably the best way to get acquainted with the person known as the father of value investing.
To understand Graham you have to know his background. Young London-born Benjamin Grossbaum moved to New York at the age of 5. His parents were Polish Jews. Only a brief period thereafter his father died and the children were raised in relative meager conditions. As an intelligent boy Ben got to skip several classes, which attracted the painful attention of the school bullies. Without a father Ben turned inwards and found his role models in literature. He idolized characters like Marcus Aurelius, Ulysses and – above all – Benjamin Franklin. He now formed a kind of stoic relationship to the world around him. It is here that the intellectual, rational and emotionally guarded person of Ben Graham is formed. His difficulty for emotional attachment later on lead him to remarry twice and to have numerous affairs, he “leaped from blond to blond like an Alpine goat springing from peak to peak”. With his third marriage and only after leaving the investment world Graham finally opened up and seemed to find peace with himself.
This is not the place to recapitulate Grahams well known history, but I would like to share a few interesting trivia. For example, what role did Jerome “Jerry” Newman have in Graham’s investment partnership Graham-Newman and what did Professor David Dodd contribute to Security Analysis? Newman basically acted as the COO handling all management but also a lot of what we today call corporate governance, freeing up Grahams time to handle investments. Dodd on the Economics Faculty at Columbia was originally put to record and transcribe the investing classes that Graham held. Those notes became the basis for Security Analysis and even though Graham clearly wrote the text, Dodd gave suggestions, checked facts and created graphs and pictures. Later on Graham and Dodd actually taught the investment class at Columbia jointly. Furthermore Graham’s accomplishment as an economist is little known. Despite only having 4 weeks of formal economics education Graham wrote two books on the subjects of commodities, currencies and inflation. He debated the topics with Keynes and left material for the Bretton Woods conference. When Graham unwound Graham-Newman in 1956 as he didn’t feel investing presented any more intellectual stimulus, he had creating the legacy called value investing with followers like Warren Buffett, Marty Whitman, Seth Klarman etc. and changed the role of security analysts into a profession. On top of it all, since 1929 Graham outperformed the market by about 14 percentage points a year.
Lowe does a splendid job not least due to the fact that she has been able to interview many of the persons who were close to Graham. The book is set up in a chronological order and it’s an easy read. One interesting aspect is that you can sense the dual feelings of the writer where the negatives regarding Grahams affairs with women gradually is overcome by respect for his investment deed and his intellectual heritage. This was one of Lowe’s first books and since then she has written many more on value investors, value investing and even on Ben Graham.
The book is a good read but more for the Graham aficionados than for those interested in value investing. The obvious recommendations for the latter are Grahams own Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor. The later is “by far the best book on investments ever written” according to Warren Buffett.
To understand Graham you have to know his background. Young London-born Benjamin Grossbaum moved to New York at the age of 5. His parents were Polish Jews. Only a brief period thereafter his father died and the children were raised in relative meager conditions. As an intelligent boy Ben got to skip several classes, which attracted the painful attention of the school bullies. Without a father Ben turned inwards and found his role models in literature. He idolized characters like Marcus Aurelius, Ulysses and – above all – Benjamin Franklin. He now formed a kind of stoic relationship to the world around him. It is here that the intellectual, rational and emotionally guarded person of Ben Graham is formed. His difficulty for emotional attachment later on lead him to remarry twice and to have numerous affairs, he “leaped from blond to blond like an Alpine goat springing from peak to peak”. With his third marriage and only after leaving the investment world Graham finally opened up and seemed to find peace with himself.
This is not the place to recapitulate Grahams well known history, but I would like to share a few interesting trivia. For example, what role did Jerome “Jerry” Newman have in Graham’s investment partnership Graham-Newman and what did Professor David Dodd contribute to Security Analysis? Newman basically acted as the COO handling all management but also a lot of what we today call corporate governance, freeing up Grahams time to handle investments. Dodd on the Economics Faculty at Columbia was originally put to record and transcribe the investing classes that Graham held. Those notes became the basis for Security Analysis and even though Graham clearly wrote the text, Dodd gave suggestions, checked facts and created graphs and pictures. Later on Graham and Dodd actually taught the investment class at Columbia jointly. Furthermore Graham’s accomplishment as an economist is little known. Despite only having 4 weeks of formal economics education Graham wrote two books on the subjects of commodities, currencies and inflation. He debated the topics with Keynes and left material for the Bretton Woods conference. When Graham unwound Graham-Newman in 1956 as he didn’t feel investing presented any more intellectual stimulus, he had creating the legacy called value investing with followers like Warren Buffett, Marty Whitman, Seth Klarman etc. and changed the role of security analysts into a profession. On top of it all, since 1929 Graham outperformed the market by about 14 percentage points a year.
Lowe does a splendid job not least due to the fact that she has been able to interview many of the persons who were close to Graham. The book is set up in a chronological order and it’s an easy read. One interesting aspect is that you can sense the dual feelings of the writer where the negatives regarding Grahams affairs with women gradually is overcome by respect for his investment deed and his intellectual heritage. This was one of Lowe’s first books and since then she has written many more on value investors, value investing and even on Ben Graham.
The book is a good read but more for the Graham aficionados than for those interested in value investing. The obvious recommendations for the latter are Grahams own Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor. The later is “by far the best book on investments ever written” according to Warren Buffett.
February 16, 2020
The first principle of value investing can be summed up in this remark:
“The disciplined, rational investor neither follows popular choice nor plays market swings; rather he searches for stocks selling at a price below their intrinsic value and waits for the market to recognize and correct its errors.” And this book concerns itself with the analysis that recognizes this. One would begin by looking at the financial state of the firm and their potential for earnings (P/E). You don't follow the market but it can make the right stocks easier or more difficult to find because of the total volume as well as its presentation.
Ben Graham was the 'dean' of Wall Street, the classes he taught at Columbia enrolled many right off of Wall Street, and Warren Buffett formed an annual conference around meeting him to extract his wisdom. Graham is the 2nd greatest influence on Buffett after his father.
This book covers his history from dropping from Columbia to one of his first jobs, analyzing CTR (what became IBM) as a statistician at Newberger, Henderson, and Loeb, eventually becoming partner at 26, to his own venture w/the Graham Fund and then the Ben Graham Joint Account, his skirmish w/the Rockefeller Trust where his principle of distributing surplus value to investors came from, after which he returned to Columbia to teach security analysis, from where 'Security Analysis' w/Dodd originated, the bible of the nature of stock and its implications, and after its success, The Intelligent Investor, a guide for individual investors, a key takeaway from which would be the considerations of the parameters:"profitability, stability, growth, financial position, dividends and price history." and the 14 Commandments: "1) Be an investor, not a speculator; 2) Know the asking price; 3) Rake the market for bargains; 4) Buy the formula; 5) Regard corporate figures with suspicion; 6) Don’t stress out; 7) Don’t sweat the math; 8) Diversify, rule number one: 25% Bonds, 25% Stocks and 50% mix of stocks and bonds; 9) Diversify, rule number two: have at least 30 different holdings; 10) When in doubt, stick to quality; 11) Dividends are a clue; 12) Defend your shareholders’ rights; 13) Be patient; and 14) Think for yourself."
The book ends with a discussion of his GEICO success, (and the SEC skirmish), on which he made 300M $, by 1972, (initial investment, 1948).
An excellent expository book, and very interesting to consider in light of the shifts in the nature of information (at least to the individual investor), as well as the significantly increased entropy of the system at almost every level, in the consideration of what informs value within what term.
“The disciplined, rational investor neither follows popular choice nor plays market swings; rather he searches for stocks selling at a price below their intrinsic value and waits for the market to recognize and correct its errors.” And this book concerns itself with the analysis that recognizes this. One would begin by looking at the financial state of the firm and their potential for earnings (P/E). You don't follow the market but it can make the right stocks easier or more difficult to find because of the total volume as well as its presentation.
Ben Graham was the 'dean' of Wall Street, the classes he taught at Columbia enrolled many right off of Wall Street, and Warren Buffett formed an annual conference around meeting him to extract his wisdom. Graham is the 2nd greatest influence on Buffett after his father.
This book covers his history from dropping from Columbia to one of his first jobs, analyzing CTR (what became IBM) as a statistician at Newberger, Henderson, and Loeb, eventually becoming partner at 26, to his own venture w/the Graham Fund and then the Ben Graham Joint Account, his skirmish w/the Rockefeller Trust where his principle of distributing surplus value to investors came from, after which he returned to Columbia to teach security analysis, from where 'Security Analysis' w/Dodd originated, the bible of the nature of stock and its implications, and after its success, The Intelligent Investor, a guide for individual investors, a key takeaway from which would be the considerations of the parameters:"profitability, stability, growth, financial position, dividends and price history." and the 14 Commandments: "1) Be an investor, not a speculator; 2) Know the asking price; 3) Rake the market for bargains; 4) Buy the formula; 5) Regard corporate figures with suspicion; 6) Don’t stress out; 7) Don’t sweat the math; 8) Diversify, rule number one: 25% Bonds, 25% Stocks and 50% mix of stocks and bonds; 9) Diversify, rule number two: have at least 30 different holdings; 10) When in doubt, stick to quality; 11) Dividends are a clue; 12) Defend your shareholders’ rights; 13) Be patient; and 14) Think for yourself."
The book ends with a discussion of his GEICO success, (and the SEC skirmish), on which he made 300M $, by 1972, (initial investment, 1948).
An excellent expository book, and very interesting to consider in light of the shifts in the nature of information (at least to the individual investor), as well as the significantly increased entropy of the system at almost every level, in the consideration of what informs value within what term.
September 29, 2017
This is like a biography of 'Benjamin Graham' and for me personally, it was very interesting to read about someone who has mentored 'Warren Buffett'
Few things which come as a highlight to me:
1. The role of a mentor: Benjamin was a great mentor and you can see that from the speeches of Warren Buffett.
2. Different style but still commonality: Warren & Ben have a very different style in terms of living and spending their time, however, they both trusted each other and the ideas of each other.
3. Prodigy: None of Ben son's became popular in the Investing world and you won't find any book without the introduction of Warren therefore, it's not the proximity yet the willingness to learn.
4. Humility: While both Ben & Warren are stalwarts in their own sense though it's nice to see Ben appreciating warren in this book and Warren being indebted to Ben for life.
I loved reading this book and it's going in my all time favorite list.
Few things which come as a highlight to me:
1. The role of a mentor: Benjamin was a great mentor and you can see that from the speeches of Warren Buffett.
2. Different style but still commonality: Warren & Ben have a very different style in terms of living and spending their time, however, they both trusted each other and the ideas of each other.
3. Prodigy: None of Ben son's became popular in the Investing world and you won't find any book without the introduction of Warren therefore, it's not the proximity yet the willingness to learn.
4. Humility: While both Ben & Warren are stalwarts in their own sense though it's nice to see Ben appreciating warren in this book and Warren being indebted to Ben for life.
I loved reading this book and it's going in my all time favorite list.
March 13, 2018
I didn't care for the writing style or choice of analogies.
It's also a questionable choice by the author to mention quite so much of Graham's personal life. I started skipping lines that listed names of family members. At one point, even the deemed attractiveness (or lack thereof) of a certain female is printed.
Anybody, like me, who bought this book hoping for useful nuggets (Graham's thinking on value investing), will quickly realize this book mostly contains a timeline of stations in the life of Benjamin Graham.
Save yourself some time and read the Intelligent Investor instead.
It's also a questionable choice by the author to mention quite so much of Graham's personal life. I started skipping lines that listed names of family members. At one point, even the deemed attractiveness (or lack thereof) of a certain female is printed.
Anybody, like me, who bought this book hoping for useful nuggets (Graham's thinking on value investing), will quickly realize this book mostly contains a timeline of stations in the life of Benjamin Graham.
Save yourself some time and read the Intelligent Investor instead.
February 11, 2018
The book aims at providing insights into the life of Benjamin Graham - Father of Value Investing. People taking interest in investments should give this one a read, not necessarily to enhance their investment knowledge, but more so to pay a small tribute to the investor philosopher by knowing him better than we already do.
May 28, 2020
This book is more of Graham's biography and his walk through the Wall Street. The ten principles that investment should adhere to are awesome.
You will gain not only financial knowledge but also a perspective to build your own philosophy that will navigate you.
You will gain not only financial knowledge but also a perspective to build your own philosophy that will navigate you.
July 21, 2023
A fine read. It’s interesting to get the personal side of a man responsible for so much analytical work and theory. I’m not sure I’m ready for The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis, but they’re on the list.
June 21, 2017
Written in short paragraphs rather than a traditional book. Good read to understand Warren Buffett's mentor.
June 29, 2017
A good insight on Ben Graham's remarkable interesting life. The father of value investing.
September 25, 2021
Biography. Not what I was looking for.
February 3, 2018
MR MARKET IS THERE TO SERVE YOU, NOT GUIDE YOU.
Value investing - select securities by focusing on facts regarding a company's financial condition and its future earnings potential.
Purchase securities when general sentiment is pessimistic and vice versa.
Value investing - select securities by focusing on facts regarding a company's financial condition and its future earnings potential.
Purchase securities when general sentiment is pessimistic and vice versa.
August 8, 2008
hard to do today in usa, but good empahsis on the margin of safety. jakarta in 1998 was place for these ideas.
January 26, 2011
I thought this was good! It was a great intro before reading the real deal: "The Intelligent Investor" by Graham. His life was interesting, very similar to his prodigal son, Warren Buffett.
Read
November 18, 2015Quite interesting!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews