A monumental achievement drifting into obsolescence 2010-07-11

Reviewer: J. Curtis

There is no question that Graham was a brilliant, highly successful investor who was able to understand and value securities in a new and unique way. His landmark tome, Security Analysis, is a monument to his brilliance, and the book should always be regarded as the watershed achievement that it truly was. But just as we no longer read Aristotle for his conclusions about biology, so should we avoid placing too much confidence in Security Analysis if we want to make money in the stock and bond markets. Simply put, the changing nature of Wall Street has rendered value investing almost obsolete. Specifically, Graham's methodology was based chiefly on examining companies by way of resort to their filed documents, that is, the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash-flow statement, as well as the various metrics that were derived from them, to wit, EPS, P/E ratio, P/B ratio, etc. The problem is that, in the post-Enron era, those documents--and the numbers that are gleaned from them--are often completely unreliable. Very often, they're chock-full of data that is manicured, manipulated, or completely made up. Of course, this is little surprise, seeing as how the private-sector auditing firms have a vested interest in making their client look good lest the companies take their auditing business somewhere else. Thus, if you're going to base your investment strategy on the kind of fundamental analysis that informs Graham's value-based methodology, you need to have access to the REAL information, which is reserved almost exclusively for a small handful of insiders and capitalist elites. Without access to that information, value investing is a dead letter. The new Wall Street is a glorified casino wherein speculation is the order of the day. Granted, it's run by a bunch of guys who went to Harvard, but it's a casino just the same. Never forget that. And as is the case in any casino, the aim is fast profit, not buy-and-hold. Money today, money now. Thus, buying and holding stocks for the long term--as Graham counsels--can be extremely dangerous, causing you to absorb large losses to your portfolio in a very short amount of time, as has happened twice in the last 10 years.

Security Analysis 2010-03-02

Reviewer: BLS

A very intetresting book. Somewhat outdated methodology but the advice is always timely and invaluable. Probably should be part of everyone's library who is interested in the topic.

Learn from the Teacher who taught Warren Buffett 2009-08-12

Reviewer: Mariusz Skonieczny

Every serious value investor has to read this book. If you are a beginning investor, this book is probably not the best place to start, but sooner or later, every investor should have a copy. Some of the information is a little outdated because a lot has changed since 1934, but still, good investing is good investing. If Warren Buffett learned from Benjamin Graham, we should all find something valuable in this book.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

A Book For Success 2009-01-11

Reviewer: Karl Smith

Highly recommended. Undestand the basics on it to develop a succesful approach in investments. Follow the principles shown here by many succesful worldwide investors.

One of the best books on investing ever!! 2008-09-03

Reviewer: Vince Berry

This is a classic and one of the best books on investing ever. It is a large book and a lot to handle for most people but it is done in a way that almost everyone should be able to understand what the author is saying. An excellent book on explaining how to value a company and getting you to think about the value of cash flow in terms of current dollars. Most of the time when people put money some place they do not really understand the return vs. risk concept. maybe this book will help with that.