"The Intelligent Investor"
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin GrahamMy review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
My friend who's also a book reader was surprised at me reading a book as "boring" as this one. I actually bought it months after the news on the meltdown of banks and financial institutions have settled down. I wanted to review what I learned about Financial Management including "investing" from MBA school (having finished mine in 2001). I took my own sweet time reading and re-reading this, most of which time I spent while traveling to and fro the subway to my daily destinations. The time was well spent, as I got myself reviewed and even have come up with another goal on investing that's included in my annual goals, of which I'm working on now.
What's wonderful about this book is that it was written by someone who knew firsthand the ups and downs of the financial market for over 50 years (am not sure now, but you can verify this as you read the book), specifically "Wall Street" mainly as a active participant, and not merely a keen observant nor an armchair business philosopher. Warren Buffett himself recommends this book, and that's no wonder as he learned a lot from the author himself, (Benjamin Graham) being one of his earliest mentors when he was still starting doing investment. The commentaries provided by Jason Zweig are valuable and provide updates on what happened since the book was last edited, revised by the author. There were earlier editions, in fact, and were since then improved and updated by the author himself, and published in 1973. A lot of developments happened since then, such that I'm amazed at how fresh and convincing are the investing tenets shared and explained by Graham in his book.
I smiled a lot at the many instances where Graham himself expressed suspicion over technocrats who favor using difficult-to-understand computations using lofty-models of business mathematics (or those computations you usually find in calculus or physics). Graham won't venture into using such "hi-tech" math models in business, as the whole business becomes greyish than ever before. All in all, a tyro investor needs to find himself, herself a copy of this just as to learn the basics of investing. I believe even a non-MBA graduate will understand what's being discussed; just take the courage to read even though at times it can be easily a boring read. You may just choose to jump into chapters, sections that appeal to you, and you'll still end up getting Graham's essential message on the rudiments of investing.
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