Benjamin Graham - The Intelligent Investor (1949)

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Speculative stock movements are carried too far in both directions, frequently in the general market and at all times in at least some of the individual issues.

Benjamin Graham
The best values today are often found in the stocks that were once hot and have since gone cold.

Benjamin Graham
You must never delude yourself into thinking that you're investing when you're speculating.

Benjamin Graham
The most striking thing about Graham's discussion of how to allocate your assets between stocks and bonds is that he never mentions the word "age".

Benjamin Graham
Even defensive portfolios should be changed from time to time, especially if the securities purchased have an apparently excessive advance and can be replaced by issues much more reasonable priced.

Benjamin Graham
Diversification is an established tenet of conservative investment.

Benjamin Graham
The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you're beating the market but by whether you've put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go.

Benjamin Graham
For 99 issues out of 100 we could say that at some price they are cheap enough to buy and at some price they would be so dear that they would be sold.

Benjamin Graham
The sillier the market's behavior, the greater the opportunity for the business like investor.

Benjamin Graham
Never buy a stock because it has gone up or sell one because it has gone down.

Benjamin Graham
By developing your discipline and courage, you can refuse to let other people's mood swings govern your financial destiny. In the end, how your investments behave is much less important than how you behave.

Benjamin Graham
There is a close logical connection between the concept of a safety margin and the principle of diversification.

Benjamin Graham
Losing some money is an inevitable part of investing, and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. But to be an intelligent investor, you must take responsibility for ensuring that you never lose most or all of your money.

Benjamin Graham
Only in the exceptional case, where the integrity and competence of the advisers have been thoroughly demonstrated, should the investor act upon the advice of others without understanding and approving the decision made.

Benjamin Graham
The investor with a portfolio of sound stocks should expect their prices to fluctuate and should neither be concerned by sizable declines nor become excited by sizable advances. He should always remember that market quotations are there for his convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored.

Benjamin Graham
No statement is more true and better applicable to Wall Street than the famous warning of Santayana: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

Benjamin Graham
A great company is not a great investment if you pay too much for the stock.

Benjamin Graham
Nothing important on Wall Street can be counted on to occur exactly in the same way as it happened before.

Benjamin Graham
It's nonsensical to derive a price/earnings ratio by dividing the known current price by unknown future earnings.

Benjamin Graham
Although there are good and bad companies, there is no such thing as a good stock; there are only good stock prices, which come and go.

Benjamin Graham
In the financial markets, hindsight is forever 20/20, but foresight is legally blind. And thus, for most investors, market timing is a practical and emotional impossibility.

Benjamin Graham
Investing isn't about beating others at their game. It's about controlling yourself at your own game.

Benjamin Graham
Thousands of people have tried, and the evidence is clear: The more you trade, the less you keep.

Benjamin Graham
No matter how careful you are, the one risk no investor can ever eliminate is the risk of being wrong. Only by insisting on what Graham called the "margin of safety" - never overpaying, no matter how exciting an investment seems to be - can you minimize your odds of error.

Benjamin Graham
We define a bargain issue as one which, on the basis of facts established by analysis, appears to be worth considerably more that it is selling for.

Benjamin Graham
The distinction between investment and speculation in common stocks has always been a useful one and its disappearance is cause for concern.

Benjamin Graham
To see how much a company is truly earning on the capital it deploys in its businesses, look beyond EPS to Return on Invested Capital (ROIC).

Benjamin Graham
A defensive investor can always prosper by looking patiently and calmly through the wreckage of a bear market.

Benjamin Graham
By refusing to pay too much for an investment, you minimize the chances that your wealth will ever disappear or suddenly be destroyed.

Benjamin Graham
It should be remembered that a decline of 50% fully offsets a preceding advance of 100%.

Benjamin Graham