Benjamin Graham and the Art of Value Investing
Benjamin Graham was born in London, England, but he moved to New York City when he was a one year old. His family migrated there looking for opportunity, but his father died soon after they’d arrived and his family fell into poverty.
Graham decided to devote his life to his studies, hoping that he could learn how to work his way out of poverty. He excelled at English, Mathematics and Philosophy, and soon found a place for himself on Wall Street. There, he made a name for himself working with john D. Rockefeller on the Northern Pipeline Affair.
Graham learned practicality in all his years, and sought to express that through the idea of value investing, which he’d convinced himself was possible for anyone to do. His techniques, and his teaching methods, seemed to work. Over the course of his life, Graham was known to have collected several disciples who studied alongside him and learned his methods.
Graham’s value investing is commonly misunderstood as buying cheap stocks. The reality is that an intelligent investor buys something at a reasonable cost because he intends to get a reasonable value from it. For Graham, the investor is only correct if the facts are in line with his assertions. Therefore, no matter the doubt, the facts speak for themselves.
Many people apply his practical methodology to investing, and a number of them find moderate, sustainable success. Graham’s teachings live on especially among those who follow the ideas of people like Warren Buffet. Graham died in 1976 at the age of 82.
About the Author: Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Samuel Phineas Upham website or Facebook.