Benjamin Graham doesn’t need an introduction. His sober look at the stock market has built an enormous following and for a good reason.
1. “If you are shopping for common stocks, choose them the way you would buy groceries, not the way you would buy perfume.” – It is true that perfumes come and go out of popularity, but no trend lasts forever. There are trends that last 3 months; there are trends that last 3 years.
2. “Obvious prospects for physical growth in a business do not translate into obvious profits for investors.” – it depends on to what level has the expected growth been already discounted. The truth is that it is really hard to forecast growth in quickly developing businesses. The market always overdiscounts at some point, but in the meantime trend followers could make a killing. You never know how long or how fast a trend could go.
3. The only constants in the markets are change and uncertainty. Not only business environment changes, but also people’s perceptions of stocks change.
Most businesses change in character and quality over the years, sometimes for the better, perhaps more often for the worse. The investor need not watch his companies’ performance like a hawk; but he should give it a good, hard look from time to time.
4. Different catalysts matter for the different time frames:
Basically, 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. At other times he will do better if he forgets about the stock market and pays attention to his dividend returns and to the operating results of his companies.
5. The difference between a trader and investor
The most realistic distinction between the investor and the speculator is found in their attitude toward stock-market movements. The speculator’s primary interest lies in anticipating and profiting from market fluctuations. The investor’s primary interest lies in acquiring and holding suitable securities at suitable prices. Market movements are important to him in a practical sense, because they alternately create low price levels at which he would be wise to buy and high price levels at which he certainly should refrain from buying and probably would be wise to sell.
6. How to think about risk (more…)
Chutzpah is a Yiddish word meaning gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, sheer guts plus arrogance. It’s Yiddish and, as Leo Rosten writes, “No other word and no other language, can do it justice.” This example is better than 1,000 words. Read the story below the picture and then you will understand.
Learning the technical aspects of trading and the markets takes time and what you think you know after 1,2, 3 years is nothing. Really, nothing. As the years roll by and you accumulate 1000’s of hours of seat time honing your edge and system you get to learn a few things about yourself as well. This is where you become a trader. And if you are humble, the learning never stops. To think otherwise is a recipe for disaster.