The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, is a book which characterized the way many people think about the stock markets like no other book ever did before. Warren Buffett once called it “The best book for investors which has ever been written”. Probably this book also shows his point of view and perhaps without it he wouldn´t be that rich today. The author Benjamin Graham was Buffett’s teacher on Columbia University and the things he though and wrote down have remained valid until today, which nearly resembles a little wonder in the permanent changing economic world.

But what is it that makes this book so unique, that even the richest man of the world calls it his favorite book? First of all we can say that the author was a really brilliant man who together with David Dodd. He discovered that markets are irrational and you can profit of it. Today this is also known as value investing and can, if you adopt it correctly, make you very rich.

The book is structured in 20 chapters, which respond to nearly everything you need to know to become a professional “intelligent” investor. Especially the difference between an investor and a speculator is one of the central points of the book. Other emphases are the margin of safety, and things which train you to make your own decisions and to build up the self-discipline you need for that. The only disadvantage of the book is that there isn´t said much about techniques of the share analysis, but for this area Benjamin wrote another book with the name “Security Analysis”.

So, I really suggest you to read this book, because it´s probably the best one which has ever been written about investing. Seriously.