So I was recently listening to some additional presentations from an audio series about investment. This particular installment was called “Fundamental Analysis, Value Investing, and Growth Investing.” I found out that it was actually two presentations: one about “Benjamin Graham and Fundamental Analysis,” and one about “Value Investing and Growth Investing.” Both were much more interesting than I would have thought, and brought back fond memories of my days as a business major.
Benjamin Graham and Fundamental Analysis
One of these presentations was partly a biography of the investor Benjamin Graham. (Again, it is just called “Benjamin Graham and Fundamental Analysis.”) The narrator says that Benjamin Graham is to investing what Euclid is to geometry, or what Twain is to American literature. Benjamin Graham is often considered the “father of modern investing.” It is not hard to see why, after you listen to this presentation. He co-wrote a work called “Securities Analysis” in 1934, which is a classic on the subject. Another of his works was “The Intelligent Investor” in 1949, which is also a classic on investing. He may not be the best investor in history, but he was good at teaching people what he knew, and thus influenced the way that other people invested as a result. They note his influence on people like Warren Buffett, who was another investor in the “value investing” tradition. This was a good presentation for someone like me, which taught me something about the “mysterious science” of investing.
Warren Buffett
Value Investing and Growth Investing
The other presentation was called “Value Investing and Growth Investing.” It revisits the work of Benjamin Graham, and his “value investing” style; but it also adds some new content that is not present to the same degree in the other presentation. Put simply, value investing attempts to buy stocks for far less than they're worth by looking at a company's financial statements, and finding value that the rest of the market can't really see. If it's done right, it's actually a fairly low-risk style. By contrast, growth investing tries to forecast economic trends in specific industries, particularly fast-growing sectors of technological industries. If you do it well, the potential rewards are immense; but the style also carries somewhat higher risks than more conservative styles. This presentation was a bit more technical, but was nonetheless a good presentation for someone like me. I was glad that I'd taken some accounting classes back in college when I listened to this presentation.
Benjamin Graham
I don't know that I'd actually want to go out there and “invest my own money,” but I wanted to round out my knowledge of business (and particularly finance). Thus, I found these presentations useful – not to mention interesting.
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Part of an audiobook series
Secrets of the Great Investors
Fundamental Analysis, Value Investing, and Growth Investing
Others to be covered later
See also the audiobook series
Great Economic Thinkers
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