Synopses & Reviews
How One Man Created a Professionand Entirely Transformed the World of Investing “The small list of investment books that must grace the library of any serious investornot to gather dust, but to be opened over and over againjust grew by one. This wonderful compilation of the wit and wisdom of Benjamin Graham is the new addition. Savor it. Learn from it. Treasure it.”
John C. Bogle, founder and former Chief Executive, The Vanguard Group
“If youth is measured by creativity and excitement about new ideas and a thirst for learning, then Ben Graham-in his early 80s-was the youngest guy in the room when two-dozen stellar investment managers met for three days to explain the inner workings of investment management.”
Charles D. Ellis, CFA, Bestselling Author of Winning the Loser's Game
“These writings, spanning over 30 years, help us understand even better the remarkable achievement of this visionary man and his lasting influence on the finance profession.”
Burton Malkiel, Princeton University, Bestselling Author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street
“Investing involves the intelligent triangulation between fundamentals, psychology, and prices. Benjamin Graham, Building a Profession . . . illustrates how this investment legend never stopped thinking about this multi-dimensional challenge.”
Seth Klarman, The Baupost Group
“Serious professionals in the investment business will delight in pouring over this and checking their own thoughts against those of the master.”
Jeffrey J. Diermeier, CFA, Diermeier Family Foundation, and former CFA Institute president and CEO
“This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history and development of our profession and the importance of critical investment thinking.”
Gary P. Brinson, CFA, GP Brinson Investments
“Some investors ('the happy few') know that Ben Graham's writings on financial analysis give them a leg up. So they will want to read this book, and other investors should.”
Jean-Marie Eveillard, First Eagle Funds
“The CFA Institute and Jason Zweig have performed an invaluable service to our profession in collecting these [writings] in one volume.”
William H. Miller, CFA, Legg Mason Funds Management
About the Book:
When Benjamin Graham began working on Wall Street in 1914, the center of American finance resembled a lawless frontier. The concept of regulatory laws was in its infancy, the SEC wouldnt see the light of day for 20 years, and many firms hid assets and earnings from nosy outsiders.
And security analysts didnt exist as we know them. They were called “diagnosticians,” and they didnt do much analyzing. These investors prided themselves on going with the “feel” of the market, and most of them rarely looked at a financial statement.
Appalled by the lack of research and quantification, Benjamin Graham set out to change all thisand ended up creating the discipline of modern security analysis.
A collection of rare writings by and interviews with one of financial historys most brilliant visionaries, Benjamin Graham, Building a Profession presents Grahams evolution of ideas on security analysis spanning five decades. Articles include:
- “Should Security Analysts Have a Professional Rating? The Affirmative Case”
Financial Analysts Journal (1945)
- “Toward a Science of Security Analysis”
Financial Analysts Journal (1952)
- “Inflated Treasuries and Deflated Stockholders: Are Corporations Milking Their Owners?”
Forbes (1932)
- “The Future of Financial Analysis”
Financial Analysts Journal (1963)
- “Controlling versus Outside Stockholders”
Virginia Law Weekly (1953)
These pages reveal the revolutionary ideas of a man who didnt so much find his calling as he created it from scratchand opened the door for entire generations of investors.
Synopsis
Benjamin Graham is widely known as the father of Value Investing, and mentor to Warren Buffett. Zweig presents Graham's valuable perspectives on investing and financial markets--many as vital today as they were in Graham's own tumultuous mid-20th century.
Synopsis
Learn and profit from the early writings of a financial genius Benjamin Graham is widely known as the father of Value Investing, and mentor to Warren Buffett. But Graham made another critically important contribution by advocating that securities analysts should meet minimum requirements of knowledge, and be held to high standards of ethical conductin short, that the profession should be treated as seriously as other fields of study, like accounting, medicine or law.
Benjamin Graham and the Birth of the Professional Financial Analyst showcases Grahams important contribution to remaking investment analysis as a profession. This fascinating collection spanning 30 years offers us valuable perspectives on investing and financial marketsmany as vital in the present day as they were in Grahams own tumultuous mid-twentieth centuryand reveals the evolution of Grahams passionate belief in the creation of a financial profession and a science of financial analysis.
Features:
- Updates and commentary by Jason Zweig, The Wall Street Journals “Intelligent Investor”
- Rare articles from The Financial Analysts Journal
- Created with the cooperation of the CFA Institute
About the Author
Jason Zweig writes the “Intelligent Investor” column for
The Wall Street Journal. He has been a senior writer at
Money, mutual funds editor at
Forbes, and guest columnist at
Time and CNN.com. Zweig is the editor of the 2003 revised edition of Benjamin Grahams book
The Intelligent Investor and the author of
Your Money and Your Brain (2007).
Rodney N. Sullivan , CFA, head of publications for CFA Institute, serves as editor of the Financial Analysts Journal and several other leading publications. He was director of research for Trigon Healthcare, Inc. (now Anthem Healthcare, Inc.) and a senior portfolio analyst for Aris Corporation.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Building a Profession
1. Toward a Professional Designation
2. Should Security Analysts Have a Professional Rating?
3. On Being Right in Security Analysis
4. The Hippocratic Method in Security Analysis
5. The SEC Method of Security Analysis
Section 2: A Science of Investment Analysis
6. Defining the New Profession
7. Toward a Science of Security Analysis
8. Two Illustrative Approaches to Formula Valuations of Common Stock
9. Special Situations
10. The War Economy and Stock Values
11. Some Structural Relationships Bearing Upon Full Employment
Section 3: The Voice of the Profession
12. A Questionnaire on Stockholder-Management Relationships
13. Our Balance of Payments: Conspiracy of Silence
14. Which Way to Relief from the Double Tax on Corporate Profits?
15. Some Observations
16. Interview with P. Ellebracht
17. Three Forbes Articles