Security Analysis: The Classic 1951 Edition

By Benjamin Graham, David L. Dodd, David Dodd

Book Overview

With nearly a million copies sold, Security Analysis has been continuously in print for more than sixty years. No investment book in history had either the immediate impact, or the long-term relevance and value, of its first edition in 1934. By 1951, seventeen years past its original publication and more than a decade beyond its revised and acclaimed 1940 second edition, authors Benjamin Graham and David Dodd had seen business and investment markets travel from the depths of Depression to the heights of recovery, and had observed investor behavior during both the calm of peacetime and the chaos of World War II.

The prescient thinking and insight displayed by Graham and Dodd in the first two editions of Security Analysis reached new heights in the third edition. In words that could just as easily have been written today as fifty years ago, they detail techniques and strategies for attaining success as individual investors, as well as the responsibilities of corporate decision makers to build shareholder value and transparency for those investors.

The focus of the book, however, remains its timeless guidance and advice--that careful analysis of balance sheets is the primary road to investment success, with all other considerations little more than distractions. The authors had seen and survived the Great Depression as well as the political and financial instabilities of World War II and were now better able to outline a program for sensible and profitable investing in the latter half of the century.

Security Analysis: The Classic 1951 Edition marks the return of this long-out-of-print work to the investment canon. It will reacquaint you with the foundations of value investing--more relevant than ever in tumultuous twenty-first century markets--and allow you to own the third installment in what has come to be regarded as the most accessible and usable title in the history of investment publishing.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071448209
• ISBN13: 9780071448208
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Length: 784 Pages
• Weight: 2.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 2.4" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A Must Read

This is the a must read for any investors. It is, however, quite difficult for beginners to comprehend, though. At least I didn't understand it quite well until after I took Corporate Finance, Accounting, etc... and studied for my CFA exam. I'd recommend beginners read Graham's "The Intelligent Investor", which help create a concrete basis of your investment philosophy.

Must read for value investors

For those interested in learning and understanding valuing investing in an indepth technical way, this book is for you. Its depth and breadth of coverage is very impressive. Graham puts forth all arguments on investing techniques and then shows, through detailed worked examples, why value investing provides the most consistent and obtainable above average results.Be warned though, this book is not for the faint hearted. It can become quite complex at times, and a reasonable level of knowledge within finance and accouting would be most beneficial to anyone reading this book. I would also recommend that readers buy Graham's other book, The Intelligent Investor, first before reading this, as it provides an excellent foundation for tackling the value investing techniques found in this book.This first half of the book focuses on bond and preffered issues. This section is dry and tedious at times, but the groundwork it lays as a point of departure for studying common stocks means it really is necessary to read. But it's well worth it, the last half of the book or so is devoted to common stock investment and here is where Graham shows his true genius and value investing becomes a clear and logical process.It's well worth your time and your money.

Security Analysis 1940 edition

If you have read The Intelligent Investor, and want a text that will expand and delve deeper into fundamental analysis, this book is for you. The separation between this book, and books similar in content, is the fact that Graham shows examples of his applied techniques. The book is broken down into two main sections, fixed value investments(bonds, preferred stocks, ect.) and common stock analysis/selection. He takes you step by step through income statement and balance sheet analysis. Graham is wary of coporate reports, especially when it comes to earnings, and points out coporate trickery to watch out for and avoid. The topics are detailed, and the exaples extensively researched. Overall, Security Analysis is a mixture of art and scienece that lays a timeless foundation for financial analysis.

Everything after 1934 looks suspicious

Someone wrote reviews to this book indicating that the major downside to it is its age. The book was written in 1934 therefore it misses all the modern developments of finance - modern portfolio theory for example - and all the new techniques that Wall Street "experts" use today.As an answer I give an anecdote from Warren Buffett's life:When stock investments started to become popular, the volume increased ten fold, and the modern techniques to make a profit were developed, Warren Buffet was extremely worried. He remembered what happened in 1929. He loathed the new trends in investment that tried to predict the future price of a stock. Therefore he had a meeting with all his fellow Graham students, he expressly forbid to bring anything newer than the 1934 edition of Security Analysis.This happened decades ago, but history repeats. We all know what happened 3 years ago. We all know how "experts" thought that the market was booming, and how they let it crash. We all know how they made a profit on the money that private investors lost.Nowadays when I go shopping for a book I always look at the date of pubblication, if it is between 1997 and 2000 I'm very wary. All those books about "new economy", "digital era", "e-commerce", "dot coms", etc. have to be taken with the maximum attention. Usually they contain a lot of inflated ideas that as we look at what happened after they were written we understand how much those "experts" really understand about stock investments.If they were wrong then, why should they be righ now?Trust me, but more importantly, trust Graham, trust Buffett, (those that have been consistently right for 50 years) this is the book to buy, "anything newer looks suspicious."

the Von Clausewitz of the investment world...

Graham is a patient logical thinker who explains his methods meticulously.Don't look here for a get rich quick scheme.If you love the markets, and already have a basic knowledge of stocks and bonds,this book will give you a good base of reference to discern true value and keep from being caught up in the latest fad.Written with the benefit of hindsight after the Crash of 29,it is a must read.It is not light reading,yet sticking with it proves very rewarding.