1. Book Review on The Intelligent
Investor by Benjamin Graham
Submitted by:-
Prashant Chauhan
19DM138
Submitted to:-
Prof. Ankur Kulshrestha
2. About the Author:
Benjamin Graham ( May 9, 1894 – September 21, 1976) was
a British-born American investor, economist, and professor.
He is widely known as the "father of value investing," and
wrote two of the founding texts in neoclassical investing:
Security Analysis (1934) with David Dodd, and The Intelligent
Investor (1949). His investment philosophy stressed investor
psychology, minimal debt, buy-and-hold investing,
fundamental analysis, concentrated diversification, buying
within the margin of safety, activist investing, and contrarian
mindsets.
3. The Three key lessons the book “The Intelligent
Investor” revolves around are:-
There are 3 principles to intelligent investing: analyze for the
long term, protect yourself from losses, and don’t go for crazy
profits.
Never trust Mr. Market(Mr. Market is an example used by Mr.
Graham in his book in which he pictures the entire stock market
as one person and calls him Mr. Market), he can be very
irrational in the short and medium term.
Stick to a strict formula by which you make all your investments,
and you’ll do fine.
4. Lesson 1: There are 3 principles to intelligent
investing.
Often also called value investing, intelligent investing according to
Benjamin Graham rests on 3 principles.
An intelligent investor always analyzes the long-term evolution
and management principles of a company before investing.
An intelligent investor always protects him- or herself from
losses by diversifying investments.
An intelligent investor never looks for crazy profits, but focuses
on safe and steady returns.
5. Lesson 2: Never trust Mr. Market.
Graham’s most famous analogy is the one of Mr. Market, where
he pictures the entire stock market as a single person.
If you imagine Mr. Market showing up on your doorstep every day,
quoting you different prices for various stocks, what would you
do?
According to Benjamin Graham, you’d be best off ignoring him
altogether, day in and day out. Sometimes the prices he’d tell you
would seem suspiciously cheap, sometimes astronomically high.
6. Lesson 3: Always stick to a strict formula.
Graham calls it formula investing, but it’s more widely known as
dollar cost averaging.
What it means is that you simply set a fixed budget you’re going to
invest every month or quarter, and then invest that into the stocks
you’ve previously picked – no matter the price.
For example, I invest 20% of my income every month. That money
goes to my investment account on autopilot and then I invest it in
the stocks I already own.
This is somewhat emotionally demanding, because it requires you
to invest the same amount again and again – no more when
stocks are cheaper, no less when stocks are expensive.
It’s a great way to protect yourself against losses, which could
happen if you invest a big sum right before a crash.