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Most of the time common stocks are subject to irrational and excessive price fluctuations in both directions as the consequence of the ingrained tendency of most people to speculate or gamble... to give way to hope, fear and greed.

Benjamin Graham

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Benjamin Graham
Age: 82 †
Born: 1894
Born: May 8
Died: 1976
Died: September 21
Economist
Financier
Investor
University Teacher
Writer
London
England
Fear
Investment
Speculation
Fluctuation
Money
Price
Irrational
Speculate
Give
Consequence
Professors
Ingrained
Giving
Financial
Finance
Gamer
Way
Subject
Tendency
Stocks
Time
Subjects
Tendencies
Excessive
People
Common
Greed
Gamble
Hope
Investing
Directions
Fluctuations

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If we assume that there are normal or standard income results to be obtained from investing money in securities, then the role of the adviser can be more readily established. He will use his superior training and experience to protect his clients against mistakes and to make sure that they obtain the results to which their money is entitled.
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The ideal form of common stock analysis leads to a valuation of the issue which can be compared with the current price to determine whether or not the security is an attractive purchase.
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The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.
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It is no difficult trick to bring a great deal of energy, study, and native ability into Wall Street and to end up with losses instead of profits. These virtues, if channeled in the wrong directions, become indistinguishable from handicaps.
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In the world of securities, courage becomes the supreme virtue after adequate knowledge and a tested judgment are at hand.
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When somebody asserts that a stock has an earning power of so much, I am sure that the person who hears him doesn't know what he means, and there is a good chance that the man who uses it doesn't know what it means.
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The distinction between investment and speculation in common stocks has always been a useful one and its disappearance is cause for concern.
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Even defensive portfolios should be changed from time to time, especially if the securities purchased have an apparently excessive advance and can be replaced by issues much more reasonable priced.
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The best values today are often found in the stocks that were once hot and have since gone cold.
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The only thing you should do with pro forma earnings is ignore them.
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The investor with a portfolio of sound stocks should expect their prices to fluctuate and should neither be concerned by sizable declines nor become excited by sizable advances. He should always remember that market quotations are there for his convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored.
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Both individual skill (art) and chance are important factors in determining success or failure.
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To establish the right price for a stock, the market must have adequate information, but it by no means follows that is the market has this information it will thereupon establish the right price.
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The sillier the market's behavior, the greater the opportunity for the business like investor.
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The money cost of the reservoir plan literally fades into insignificance when it is compared with the financial burden which the great depression imposed on the nation.
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If you are shopping for common stocks, choose them the way you would buy groceries, not the way you would buy perfume.
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The beauty of periodic rebalancing is that it forces you to base your investing decisions on a simple, objective standard.
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Every corporate security may be best viewed, in the first instance, as an ownership interest in, or a claim against, a specific business enterprise.
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Successful investing is about managing risk, not avoiding it.
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The market is always making mountains out of molehills and exaggerating ordinary vicissitudes into major setbacks.
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