Security Analysis: The Classic 1940 Edition

Proud to own this

This is a must read for everybody, involved with the stock market or not. Amazing book that I have proudly placed on my desk.

Trust Score

2.6

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Old but provacative

When stock investments started to become popular, the volume increased ten fold, and the modern techniques to make a profit were developed, Warren Buffet was extremely worried. He remembered what happened in 1929. He loathed the new trends in investment that tried to predict the future price of a stock. Therefore he had a meeting with all his fellow Graham students, he expressly forbid to bring anything newer than the 1934 edition of Security Analysis.

This happened decades ago, but history repeats. We all know what happened 3 years ago. We all know how "experts" thought that the market was booming, and how they let it crash. We all know how they made a profit on the money that private investors lost.

Nowadays when I go shopping for a book I always look at the date of pubblication, if it is between 1997 and 2000 I'm very wary. All those books about "new economy", "digital era", "e-commerce", "dot coms", etc. have to be taken with the maximum attention. Usually they contain a lot of inflated ideas that as we look at what happened after they were written we understand how much those "experts" really understand about stock investments.

If they were wrong then, why should they be righ now?

Trust me, but more importantly, trust Graham, trust Buffett, (those that have been consistently right for 50 years) this is the book to buy, "anything newer looks suspicious."

Trust Score

9.4

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Overall

A true classic!

Coffee is not optional here. This is a heavy slog, but worth the effort. This guy was Warren Buffett's original mentor and has long since passed away, but has kindly left us with one of the most helpful books that has played a huge part in forming modern day investment.

Graham is a true investing pioneer. His insights were so ahead of their time. If you're looking to be a real investor this is a great book. If you're looking to just trade then this would only waste your time.

Of course the examples are outdated being over 70 years old, but the messages are as applicable today as they were in the 30's/40's.

Trust Score

8.8

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Investors Paradise, traders nightmare

Security Analysis is referred to by many value investors as the book that some of today's best investors learned from. From Buffett to Klarman, security analysis is all about Value Investing which is much different than trading.

For those of you looking to get into investing for long time horizons I'd highly recommend this book. Although a lot of the material is dated, it would still be good for you to slog through this rather dry piece of literature. Be sure to have a few cups of coffee on hand while reading this as certain chapters are painstakingly tough to get through. This isn't chock full of information that you can transfer over to today's modern day companies but the fundamentals remain the same.

Stay clear of this if you want to be a day trader as it will just waste your time and there are plenty of other books out there than will better suit your needs.

Trust Score

9.0

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Wont make you money

I had to have this book for a couple of finance classes that I took it college. Admittedly, I was not able to slog through all zillion pages of this tome. I'll sum up what I remember. The book says that stocks can be bought for value because the market has different moods and the market tends to overcorrect from equilibrium based on short term news about earnings and other company fundamentals. I think there are much better books out there to learn to make money in the market and easier to read ones as well. But, this book is a classic and the guy taught Warren Buffet so what do I know.

Trust Score

6.7

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Classic Value!

I think my title applies well to both the book and it's content, a great book. One of those you want to have in your book case. Slow in parts the bond pricing is especially yawn inciting yet the information is second to none. I would like to second a previous reviewers comment about it's value fr those looking for a slightly more advanced book than your introductory book into securities analysis. All in all, a fantastic book, a must read if you are planning on nuilding you own portfolio o even if you are a trader. The knowledge that on has from reading this book is applicable in almost any field of finance.

Trust Score

6.8

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