|  | Authors: Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig
Creator: Warren E. Buffett
Publisher: Collins Business
List Price: $21.99
Buy New: $9.99
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Rating:  157 reviews
Sales Rank: 439
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Pages: 640
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0060555661
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.678
EAN: 9780060555665
ASIN: 0060555661
Publication Date: July 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 11-15 of 157
 #1 on the serious investor's reading list June 28, 2009
Julie Jason (Stamford, CT)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Why is "The Intelligent Investor" an investment book that even professional money managers read? Because it is timeless classic (updated nicely by Jason Zweig) that enhances knowledge without promising the impossible.
Do-it-yourselfers looking for a quick get-rich-quick fix should look elsewhere.
 Serve Me An Extra Helping of Graham But Hold The Zweig June 26, 2009
Mark Twain (Chicago, IL)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Let me first say that I am a big fan of Jason Zweig. When Zweig tells us where to put our money we should all listen. I enjoy his columns and advice in Money magazine, and I think he speaks with the reader's interests at heart and he does so with common sense.
But let's be clear that there are two schools of common sense:
1) Value investing aims to exploit the common-sense notion that you can buy a dollar for 75 cents.
2)Index investing, on the other hand, proposes that an individual investor is not equipped to accomplish the task of above-market investing (when I say not equipped I mean equipped by either intelligence, financial resources, time constraints, emotional immaturity, etc.).
Both have their merits. But Zweig uses the Graham text, from school #1, as a springboard to convince the reader of the virtues of school #2. The result is a sloppy commentary at best, and, at times, incoherent and inconsistent.
Zweig, if you want to sell people on index investing, you chose the wrong book to support your thesis!
This is the main reason why I give this edition three stars versus the five Graham deserves: THE ZWEIG COMMENTARY IS DETRIMENTAL TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF GRAHAM. The arguments linking the Malkiel/Bogle Index Investor school to the Graham/Buffett school of thought aren't very well supported. Both are common sense but each has its own reasoning. This makes the task of understanding the text on its own merits more difficult, not less! That's not commentary! That's an agenda of using the text for your own purposes.
This book is a classic. On those grounds alone you should pick it up. Moreoever, as a means of transmitting the core principles of value investing it still remains, as Buffett notes, near the top. You should go straight to the hardcover and hear these words as they were intended to be heard.
an investing book that all serious investors should read June 26, 2009
B. Davis
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
the book is quite old and as such some of the information is dated. Furthermore, the book is outrageously conservative. That being said, it provides sound investment principes and points out erroneous investment strategies. The book should be read by all serious investors for it is the best book on conservative investing that I am aware of. And thus should be read even if one opts for a less conservative path.
Rosetta Stone for Investors June 20, 2009
Raghuveer Narasimhan (Grand Rapids, MI)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am a computer programmer and was looking for a book to help me start investing and I read the Intelligent Investor early last year. I'm delighted to say, this book has provided a great amount of illumination on money & investing(and even outside the world of finance). I firmly believe that this book will help other lay investors to get started.
I found five mental constructs from this book particularly enlightening-
1. Draws clear distinction between investment and speculation:
Graham defines investing as:
"An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and a satisfactory return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative"
By using this definition in a mental checklist can help to avoid rash decisions.
2. Concept of risk, Distinction between Defensive and Enterprising investor.
Graham advocates risk avoidance as supposed to the idea of "risk tolerance" (that most media experts say one must have to obtain good results in the market) and defines risk as "Permanent loss of capital".
He provides separate instructions for defensive investors (who seek safety and adequate return and don't have time and expertise to analyze deeply) and enterprising investors (people who will be able to devote ample time to evaluate business and balance sheets).
3. Asset Allocation and Investment Program:
Graham recommends people to have 25 to 75 percent of their money in stocks or bonds. He advises people to calibrate their asset allocation not on based on age (which people like Jack Bogle advise) but based on how attractive the yield of the asset class. I found this more convincing than Bogle's strategy. Graham DOES NOT recommend dollar-cost averaging which has led a lot of people of a cliff in the recent bear market.
In Graham's words: " when the average price of common stocks is too high, the simple technique of dollar cost averaging may not yield satisfactory results to the average investor".
4. Market fluctuations (Mr. Market) - Graham observes the Stock Market is like a manic depressive(Mr. Market) who offers to buy out your shares or sell you his shares everyday at a different price. He instructs the readers to ignore everyday quotations unless it presents an opportunity to buy it @ a cheap price or sell their holdings above its intrinsic value.
5. Margin of Safety - Drawing from the engineering concept, Graham advises investors to seek out a margin of safety in the price they pay for as asset from its intrinsic value as cushion against errors in estimating its yield and potential losses.
Two other comments that I have are:
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Graham doesn't discuss about identifying companies which have great qualitative factors (customer loyalty, product satisfaction, management quality etc) going for them
which might make them great buys even if they are selling above book value. Depending upon your perspective that might be a good or bad thing (i.e lack of treatment of qualitative factors).
I found JASON ZWEIG's footnotes mostly useful BUT his commentary after every chapter quite repetitive and annoying. In fact, it detracts the reader from absorbing Graham's wisdom.So you SHOULD skip that right away.
Happy Reading!
 Excellent Investment Book June 6, 2009
Sparrowhawk (New York, NY)
The book that Warren Buffett considers the bible of investing is well worth the read.
The investment approach laid out by Benjamin Graham is a no-nonsense long term value investing strategy. Markets are not as efficient as Malkiel would suggest and there are opportunities out there for investors who do their research and manage their risk properly. The author cautions that our own emotions can be our worst enemy and must be strictly managed and rails against speculators who take too much risk or rely on technical analysis.
While Graham's philosophy still resounds today and is very applicable in the current market his examples are quite dated. That is where Jason Zweig steps in and updates each chapter with footnotes and his own commentary to highlight recent examples and bring the text up to date.
Showing reviews 11-15 of 157
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