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Benjamin Graham on Value Investing

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Benjamin Graham on Value Investing

Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street

Prentice Hall Press,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

How did Benjamin Graham become Dean of Wall Street? By telling investors to think for themselves and weigh genuine value.

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Value investing is back in vogue. And so is Benjamin Graham. His books - Security Analysis and the Intelligent Investor - are the seminal texts on the subject of investing. Numerous investors (including Warren Buffett) owe their success to Graham’s writings. Janet C. Lowe’s book adds to the Graham myth. It weaves the story of Graham as a husband, father and loyal friend into his public life as a fund manager, writer and teacher. Lowe breathes life into an otherwise sterile topic, but her emphasis is on Graham’s personal history more than on his investment advice. She does make it clear that Graham’s fiscal belief system emphasizes intelligent investing by both the professional and individual investor. getAbstract recommends this book to people who follow - and hope to profit from - the vicissitudes of the stock market and of its indelible characters.

Summary

The Dean of Wall Street

It was 1968, and Warren Buffett needed help. The market was down, and Buffet could find no good stocks to buy. But the solution was clear. Buffett said to his friend Walter Schloos, "Let’s go out and see Ben and ask him what he would do."

"Ben" was Benjamin Graham. To many financial professionals, he was the "Dean of Wall Street." Buffett and dozens of other high-profile investors held Graham in high regard for his management of the Graham-Newman Fund, his teaching at Columbia University and his publications on investing. In fact, Buffett claimed that Graham’s Intelligent Investor was the best investment book ever written.

Graham was retired at the time that Buffett and a dozen other "students" made a pilgrimage to see him at the Hotel Coronado in San Diego. First, Graham quizzed his visitors on investing. He wanted them to realize that questionable accounting practices were commonplace - and that any investor who relied upon someone else’s coattails was likely to get burned. The get-together was such a success that it became an annual meeting which Buffett continues to sponsor to this day.

The gospel according to Graham was value...

About the Author

Award-winning business journalist Janet C. Lowe frequently speaks on investing before live audiences and on television and radio. She is the author of Dividends Don’t Lie (co-authored by Geraldine Weiss), The Super Saver, The Secret Empire and Keys to Investing in International Stocks.

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