Thursday 25 October 2012

What is Investing?


Graham, Chapter 1: 
Graham lays out his definition of investing right from the start of this chapter. His description is "an investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis promises safety of principal and an adequate return" (p. 18). He labels anything not meeting these standards as speculation. 
Graham then describes two different approaches to investing: defensive and aggressive. 
Obviously, safety is a big concern for the defensive investor, and that shows in his example of putting half of your money in stocks and half in bonds. He lists other approaches of defensive investing, like investing only in well established companies, and dollar-cost averaging. 
Graham's take on aggressive investing isn't as kind. The three types of the aggressive approach (trading the market, short-term selectivity, and long-term selectivity) are all considered to have less profitability. This is explained by the possibility of the aggressive investor being wrong on his or her market timing.

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Related:

The Intelligent Investor: The Defensive Investor and Common Stocks


The Intelligent Investor: General Portfolio Policy for the Defensive Investor


The Intelligent Investor: The Positive Side to Portfolio Policy for the Enterprising Investor




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