The Intelligent Investor
- author
- Benjamin Graham
- tags
- Finance
Book Notes
Being an intelligent investor is about developing emotional discipline
An intelligent investor refuses to stoop to the market’s level of irrationality. They minimize the odds of irreversible gains, and maximize the odds of achieving sustainable gains.
Investor vs Speculator
The investor must recognize the existence of a speculative factor in their common-stock holdings, and keep this components within minor limits.
The defensive investor must confine himself to the shares of important companies with a long record of profitable operations and in strong financial condition.
- Always thoroughly analyse a company, and the soundness of the underlying businesses, before buying its stock.
- Deliberate protect yourself against serious losses
- aspire to “adequate”, not extraordinary performance
The stock market is riskier when prices are higher
Stock market performance factors
The performance of a stock market is dependent on 3 factors:
- Real growth (rise of company’s earnings and dividends)
- Inflationary growth (rise of prices throughout the economy)
- Speculative growth (increase or decrease in the investing public’s appetite for stocks)
Combating Inflation
Mild inflation allows companies to pass the increased costs of their own raw materials on to customers, but high inflation wreaks havoc-forcing customers to slash their purchases, depressing activity throughout the economy.
To guard against inflation, a common advice is to buy stocks, but in truth stocks failed to keep up with inflation about one-fifth of the time.
To combat inflation, additionally look into REITs, and government bonds.