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The Intelligent Investor
by Benjamin Graham
Warren Buffett calls this 'by far the best book on investing ever written.' Graham's framework for value investing — buying stocks at a discount to their intrinsic value and maintaining a margin of safety — has shaped more successful long-term investors than any other text in the history of markets. Dense, but foundational.
Key takeaways
- ★The market is a voting machine in the short run and a weighing machine in the long run
- ★Mr. Market is your servant, not your guide — exploit his irrationality, don't follow it
- ★Margin of safety: never pay full price; always leave room to be wrong
- ★Distinguish between investing and speculation — most people do the latter while thinking they do the former
- ★The investor's chief problem — and worst enemy — is likely to be themselves