26-11-2012, 01:17 PM
THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR
BEN GRAHAM.pdf (Size: 5.08 MB / Downloads: 26)
COMMENTARY ON THE INTRODUCTION
Notice that Graham announces from the start that this book will not
tell you how to beat the market. No truthful book can.
Instead, this book will teach you three powerful lessons:
• how you can minimize the odds of suffering irreversible losses;
• how you can maximize the chances of achieving sustainable gains;
• how you can control the self-defeating behavior that keeps most
investors from reaching their full potential.
Back in the boom years of the late 1990s, when technology stocks
seemed to be doubling in value every day, the notion that you could
lose almost all your money seemed absurd. But, by the end of 2002,
many of the dot-com and telecom stocks had lost 95% of their value
or more. Once you lose 95% of your money, you have to gain 1,900%
just to get back to where you started.1 Taking a foolish risk can put
you so deep in the hole that it’s virtually impossible to get out. That’s
why Graham constantly emphasizes the importance of avoiding
losses—not just in Chapters 6, 14, and 20, but in the threads of warning
that he has woven throughout his entire text
AR E YO U A N I N T E L L I G E N T I NVE S TOR?
Now let’s answer a vitally important question. What exactly does Graham
mean by an “intelligent” investor? Back in the first edition of this
book, Graham defines the term—and he makes it clear that this kind of
intelligence has nothing to do with IQ or SAT scores. It simply means
being patient, disciplined, and eager to learn; you must also be able to
harness your emotions and think for yourself. This kind of intelligence,
explains Graham, “is a trait more of the character than of the brain.” 2
There’s proof that high IQ and higher education are not enough to
make an investor intelligent. In 1998, Long-Term Capital Management
L.P., a hedge fund run by a battalion of mathematicians, computer
scientists, and two Nobel Prize–winning economists, lost more than
$2 billion in a matter of weeks on a huge bet that the bond market
would return to “normal.” But the bond market kept right on becoming
more and more abnormal—and LTCM had borrowed so much money
that its collapse nearly capsized the global financial system.3
And back in the spring of 1720, Sir Isaac Newton owned shares in
the South Sea Company, the hottest stock in England. Sensing that
the market was getting out of hand, the great physicist muttered that
he “could calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the
madness of the people.” Newton dumped his South Sea shares, pocketing
a 100% profit totaling £7,000. But just months later, swept up in
the wild enthusiasm of the market, Newton jumped back in at a much
higher price—and lost £20,000 (or more than $3 million in today’s
money). For the rest of his life, he forbade anyone to speak the words
“South Sea” in his presence.