I have the same confession as Glenn Greenberg's (the one who wrote the intro to Part V of this book): I never read Security Analysis back in school, although I did read The Intelligent Investor. Many years into my career in investment research, I finally got around to writing about how I regret not picking up the book earlier. I would consider this a must-read, both as a textbook and a practical guide, for serious securities analysis professionals.
My experience with reading this book has been wonderful. Not only did I pick up various specific lessons that would be valuable for my career in the stock market (particularly on behavioral biases, such as the market's tendency to value management quality twice), I also came to appreciate the various aspects about Ben Graham as a person:
1. VISION
The book helps you understand why Ben Graham is considered a 'man of ideas', whose investment philosophies transcend time. Decades after the various editions of this book were published, such ideas as 'speculation focuses primarily on, and attempts to profit from, the unknown future' as well as the classic 'margin of safety' would have served to prevent the dotcom or the subprime mortgage crashes. Moreover, observations such as that the P/E ratio was arbitrarily applied ('sometimes to the past, sometimes to the present, sometimes to the near future') still resonate with current practices in many markets.
2. LOGIC
Ben Graham was mathematically inclined. After all, he did elect to major in math at Columbia. Reflecting this, his writing consisted of many instructive guidelines that are both illuminating and elegantly succinct, like what you would expect of a mathematical equality. This makes it so easy for readers to quote his wisdom. Consider this sentence: 'It may be said, with some approximation to the truth, that investment is grounded on the past whereas speculation looks primarily to the future.' (although this is not a complete statement).
3. CREATIVITY
Ben Graham's intellectual capacity is by no means confined to quantitative analysis. A reflection of his being offered post-graduation employment in English, math and philosophy, Ben Graham eventually went on to co-write a Broadway play, develop a patented Morse-code-based system, and translate a Spanish novel. In his writing, you would find such flair of his creativity as this: 'An indefinite and approximate measure of the intrinsic value may be sufficient. To use a homely simile, it is quite possible to decide by inspection that a woman is old enough to vote without knowing her age.'
4. GENEROSITY
Warren Buffett was impressed by Ben when he used his own stock picks as examples in his class at Columbia, thereby revealing his trade secrets, perhaps to his financial detriment. This tendency to be so generous is reflected in the book: the 'Dean of Wall Street' was so deeply concerned with the well-being of the laymen investor in the stock market that he lashed out on Wall Street as an institution, which he himself was part of. Warren Buffett was lucky to be at the receiving end of Ben's generosity.
Note that this is still essentially a book about the technicality and psychology involved in the job of a security analyst. To obtain a more detailed picture of Ben Graham as a person, I would recommend his own Memoirs book, or The Einstein of Money by Joe Carlen.
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Trung T.
A must-read for serious securities analysis professionals
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 March 2017Verified Purchase
Boris
A limite del ridicolo
Reviewed in Italy on 29 April 2020Verified Purchase
FrankRossetti
Highly recommend.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 November 2016Verified Purchase
db
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 June 2017Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 November 2017Verified Purchase