The determining trait of the enterprising (or active, or aggressive) investor is his willingness to devote time and care to the selection of securities that are both sound and more attractive than the average. Benjamin Graham More Quotes by Benjamin Graham More Quotes From Benjamin Graham The margin of safety is always dependent on the price paid. It will be large at one price, small at some higher price, nonexistent at some still higher price. Benjamin Graham miscalculations investing safety 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. Benjamin Graham investing safety long Avoid second-quality issues in making up a portfolio unless they are demonstrable bargains. Benjamin Graham portfolios issues quality Never mingle your speculative and investment operations in the same account nor in any part of your thinking. Benjamin Graham investment investing thinking Those with the enterprise lack the money and those with the money lack the enterprise to buy stocks when they are cheap. Benjamin Graham investing enterprise Many progressive economists insist that gold is now in essentially the same position as silver and that the arguments the simon-pure gold advocates use against the white metal can be directed with equal effect against their own fetish. Benjamin Graham gold use white We have not known a single person who has consistently or lastingly make money by thus "following the market". We do not hesitate to declare this approach is as fallacious as it is popular. Benjamin Graham investing making-money approach I quickly convinced myself that the true key to material happiness lay in a modest standard of living which could be achieved with little difficulty under almost all economic conditions. Benjamin Graham economic keys littles The utility, or intrinsic value of gold as a commodity is now considerably less than in the past; its monetary status has become extraordinarily ambiguous; and its future is highly uncertain. Benjamin Graham commodity gold past In the old legend the wise men finally boiled down the history of mortal affairs into a single phrase: 'This too will pass.' Benjamin Graham phrases wise men The volume of credit depends upon three factors: the desire to borrow, the ability to lend and the desire to lend. Benjamin Graham credit three desire The investor who permits himself to be stampeded or unduly worried by unjustified market declines in his holdings is perversely transforming his basic advantage into a basic disadvantage. Benjamin Graham investing worried permit The art of investment has one characteristic that is not generally appreciated. A creditable, if unspectacular, result can be achieved by the lay investor with a minimum of effort and capability; but to improve this easily attainable standard requires much application and more than a trace of wisdom. If you merely try to bring just a little extra knowledge and cleverness to bear upon your investment program, instead of realizing a little better than normal results, you may well find that you have done worse. Benjamin Graham effort trying art Individual security bargains may be located by the process of security analysis practically at any time. They can be bought with good overall results at all periods except when the general market itself is clearly in a selling range for investors. They show up to best advantage during the years in which the market remains in a relatively narrow and neutral area. Benjamin Graham analysis may years In an ideal world, the intelligent investor would hold stocks only when they are cheap and sell them when they become overpriced, then duck into the bunker of bonds and cash until stocks again become cheap enough to buy. Benjamin Graham investing ducks intelligent Both individual skill (art) and chance are important factors in determining success or failure. Benjamin Graham skills important art The purchase of a bargain issue presupposes that the market's current appraisal is wrong, or at least that the buyer's idea of value is more likely to be right than the market's. In this process the investor sets his judgement against that of the market. To some this may seem arrogant or foolhardy. Benjamin Graham issues judgement ideas 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. Benjamin Graham investing doe pay The qualitative factors upon which most stress is laid are the nature of the business and the character of the management. These elements are exceedingly important, but they are also exceedingly difficult to deal with intelligently. Benjamin Graham stress important character It is worth pointing out that assuredly not more than one person out of a hundred who stayed in the market after after 1925 emerged from it with a net profit and that the speculative losses taken were appalling. Benjamin Graham hundred taken loss