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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.

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
Common
Speculation
Always
Distinction
Investing
Useful
Investment
Concern
Cause
Disappearance
Causes
Stocks

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It's nonsensical to derive a price/earnings ratio by dividing the known current price by unknown future earnings.
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The investor should be aware that even though safety of its principal and interest may be unquestioned, a long term bond could vary widely in market price in response to changes in interest rates.
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You must never delude yourself into thinking that you're investing when you're speculating.
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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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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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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.
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It always seemed, and still seems, ridiculously simple to say that if one can acquire a diversified group of common stocks at a price less than the applicable net current assets alone - after deducting all prior claims, and counting as zero the fixed and other assets - the results should be quite satisfactory.
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Never mingle your speculative and investment operations in the same account nor in any part of your thinking.
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It is absurd to think that the general public can ever make money out of market forecasts.
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The chief losses to investors come from the purchase of low-quality securities at times of favorable business conditions.
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The market is a pendulum that forever swings between unsustainable optimism (which makes stocks too expensive) and unjustified pessimism (which makes them too cheap). The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.
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Even the most conservative must realize that the recent transformation of surplus from an individual to a national disaster implies a scathing indictment of our capitalist system as it has now developed.
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The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.
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It should be remembered that a decline of 50% fully offsets a preceding advance of 100%.
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In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it is a weighing machine.
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Experience teaches that the time to buy stocks is when their price is unduly depressed by temporary adversity. In other words, they should be bought on a bargain basis or not at all.
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There is a close logical connection between the concept of a safety margin and the principle of diversification.
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