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Both individual skill (art) and chance are important factors in determining success or failure.

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
Success
Individual
Art
Determining
Important
Skill
Factors
Skills
Failure
Chance

More quotes by Benjamin Graham

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Successful investing professionals are disciplined and consistent and they think a great deal about what they do and how they do it.
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Price statistics show clearly that instability in raw-material prices is a prime cause of instability of other prices.
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The investor's primary interest lies in acquiring and holding suitable securities at suitable prices.
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Confronted with a challenge to distill the secret of sound investment into three words, we venture the motto, Margin of Safety.
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Individuals who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process.
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Mr. Market does not always price stocks the way an appraiser or a private buyer would value a business. Instead, when stocks are going up, he happily pays more than their objective value and, when they are going down, he is desperate to dump them for less than their true worth.
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High valuations entail high risks.
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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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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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Though business conditions may change, corporations and securities may change, and financial institutions and regulations may change, human nature remains the same. Thus the important and difficult part of sound investment, which hinges upon the investor's own temperament and attitude, is not much affected by the passing years.
Benjamin Graham
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The chief obstacle to success lies in the stubborn fact that if the favorable prospects of a concern are clearly apparent they are almost always reflected already in the current price of the stock. Buying such an issue is like betting on a topheavy favorite in a horse race. The chances may be on your side, but the real odds are against you.
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At heart, uncertainty and investing are synonyms.
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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 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.
Benjamin Graham
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Knowledge is only one ingredient on arriving at a stock's proper price. The other ingredient, fully as important as information, is sound judgment.
Benjamin Graham
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The correct attitude of the security analyst toward the stock market might well be that of a man toward his wife. He shouldn't pay too much attention to what the lady says, but he can't afford to ignore it entirely. That is pretty much the position that most of us find ourselves vis-à-vis the stock market.
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Thousands of people have tried, and the evidence is clear: The more you trade, the less you keep.
Benjamin Graham
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To see how much a company is truly earning on the capital it deploys in its businesses, look beyond EPS to Return on Invested Capital (ROIC).
Benjamin Graham
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The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator. This means ... that he should be able to justify every purchase he makes and each price he pays by impersonal, objective reasoning that satisfies him that he is getting more than his money's worth for his purchase.
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Price fluctuations have only one significant meaning for the true investor. They provide him with an opportunity to buy wisely when prices fall sharply and to sell wisely when they advance a great deal.
Benjamin Graham