Chief Investment Losses

I am still trying to finish up my reading of The Intelligent Investor. Benjamin Graham's book is a hard read. I often find I can only read a page or two in a sitting and need days to reflect on what I have read.

A few words of wisdom from the The Intelligent Investor:

Observation over many years has taught us that the chief losses to investors come from the purchase of lower quality securities at times of favorable business conditions.

Just coming off the aftermath of the Internet bubble this is probably easy for most of us to agree with. I will admit I even owned stocks that became worthless. Worthless - the value of these businesses was "nothing" - I now question how I could value a business and justify an investment in that business that just a few years later would be completely worthless. I still have a lot to learn.

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Comments (2)

I agree with you that it is a tough read but the advise in there is top notch if not THE best.

Posted by Mr P | December 5, 2006 8:03 PM

Ha! That is so true. I average about one page a week, then usually have to end up re-reading things, because I have to look up financial definitions, etc. I also have The Interpretation of Financial Statements - it's smaller but equally dense in content. I feel like if I could get through that little book and understand everything, I could get an honorary finance degree from Harvard (or at least the local state university . . . )

Posted by wfbe | December 5, 2006 8:41 PM