聰明的投資人：本傑明.格林厄姆

 

以“價值投資之父”和“華爾街院長”著稱的本傑明.格林厄姆（1894-1976）非常擅長在股票市場為自己和其客戶以小風險賺錢。格林厄姆創造並傳授了許多當下投資人仍然沿用的安全和成功投資的原則。

 

這些想法建立在格林厄姆對許多公司的改革和財務評估上。他的經歷給他帶來了簡單有效的邏輯，在此基礎上格林厄姆建立了一個投資的成功方式。

 

他的遺產

格林厄姆的工作是投資界的傳奇。他被譽為證券分析行業的創造者。盡管他因是沃倫.巴菲特的導師而著名，格林厄姆還是一位著名的作家，他最著名的書籍有《證券分析》（1934年）和《聰明的投資人》（1949年）。格林厄姆是第一個使用財務分析成功投資股票的人。他為也為稱為“真實證券法案”的1933年證券法案的起草提供了很多幫助，這條法案要求公司經由獨立的會計師提供財務報表。這使得格林厄姆的財務分析工作更容易、更有效率，在這種新的模式中，他取得了成功。

 

他的開始

格林厄姆曾是紐約哥倫比亞大學的明星學生，1914年畢業之後曾在華爾街短暫工作。在接下來的15他用對細節敏銳的觀察建立了一個龐大的個人養老基金。即便如此，他還沒有展露其投資策略。

 

他在1929年的股市崩盤和隨後的經濟大蕭條中幾乎損失了所有資產。在這個沉痛的風險中學習之後，他編寫了“證券分析”（1934年出版），這其中記錄了格林厄姆對有價證券的分析方法。這本書已經在世界範圍内的金融課上被當作基礎部分運用了幾十年。

 

他人生的高潮和低谷

1929年股市崩盤和之後經濟大蕭條中損失是格林厄姆開始展露他的投資技巧。這些技巧在降低風險的同時尋求利益。他通過購買那些股票交易價格低於其清算價值的公司的股票達成這一目標。

 

簡單的說，他的目標是用50美分購買價值一美元的東西，而且他在理論和實踐中做的都非常好。

 

格林厄姆用兩種方法達到這一目標。第一種是市場理論的運用。也就是利用人們對市場的恐懼和貪婪。第二種方法是運用數字投資。

 

他的理論：“市場先生”和“安全邊際”

格林厄姆強調把市場當作一個從你購買或者向你出賣利益的生意合作夥伴的重要性。格林厄姆把這個想象中的人稱為市場先生。格林厄姆說市場先生的價格有時有意義，但是有時卻對經濟現實來說太高或者太低。

 

你，作為一個投資人，可以自由的從市場先生購買或者出售給他利益，如果你不喜歡他的價格你甚至不用理睬他。你可以忽視他是因為他永遠會帶著不同的價格在第二天回來。這是消費品市場理論。格林厄姆把普通投資人能夠自由交易當作相對那些無視股票當前評估價值而一直交易的專業投資人的最大優勢。

 

格林厄姆當然也強調在投資中有“安全邊際”的重要性。這意味著只購買那些價格遠低於保守業務估值的股票。這很重要，這能保證股票在升到公允價格後的利潤，也為事情不按計劃發展或者受阻提供保護。這是他工作的數學一面。

 

作為偉大投資者和老師的人生

 

除了投資工作，格林厄姆還在他的母校哥倫比亞大學教授證券分析。在那裡，他對投資策略和過程癡迷就像他曾經對賺錢的癡迷一樣。最後，他在1949年撰寫了《聰明的投資人》一書。這本書比《證券分析》向普通投資人提供了更多的實用性建議，它也一直是最暢銷的投資書籍之一。

 

巴菲特把《聰明的投資人》描述成“有史以來最好的投資書籍”來高度贊揚這本相對簡單的書。巴菲特曾說格林厄姆對他人極其慷慨，尤其在他的投資理念上。事實上，格林厄姆花費他退休時光中較好的一部分在新的、簡單的公式上以幫助普通投資者投資股票。巴菲特現在也通過年會與普通投資者分享經驗來遵循這一信條。

 

在十九歲讀完《聰明的投資人》之後，巴菲特報考了哥倫比亞大學商學院以便向格林厄姆學習，之後他們建立了終身的友誼。之後，巴菲特在一家類似限額共同基金名為格林厄姆紐曼合夥人公司的公司為格林厄姆工作。直到格林厄姆決定停止業務退休，巴菲特為他工作了兩年。

 

之後，格林厄姆的許多客戶要求巴菲特來管理他們的資金，按照他們說的，過去的成為了歷史。巴菲特繼續發展他自己的戰略，他的策略與格林厄姆不同，他註重業務的質量的和無限期持有的投資。格林厄姆的投資通常純粹基於一個公司的數字，並且在一個預定價值出售。盡管如此，巴菲特曾說過沒有人因為遵循格林厄姆的方法和建議而賠錢。

 

如果你想讓你的投資獲得更好的結果，你應該讀讀（甚至是反複讀）格林厄姆的書。

 

結束語

 

如果你想知道格林厄姆在投資上的表現，雖然其投資細節不容易獲取，但是前面已經提到在其多年的資金管理生涯中始終維持著一個平20%的年回報。格林厄姆在購買普通股票被認為是賭博的時候取得了這樣的成績，但是他卻是用一種低風險良好回報的方式購買股票。因為這個原因，格林厄姆被當作財務分析的先驅。

The Intelligent Investor: Benjamin Graham 

 

Serious physicists read about Sir Isaac Newton to learn his teachings about gravity and motion. Serious investors read Benjamin Graham's work to learn about finance and investments.

 

Known as "the father of value investing" and the "Dean of Wall Street," Ben Graham (1894-1976) excelled at making money in the stock market for himself and his clients without taking big risks. Graham created and taught many principles of investing safely and successfully that modern investors continue to use today. 

 

These ideas were built on Graham's diligent, almost surgical, financial evaluation of companies. His experience led to simple, effective logic, upon which Graham built a successful method for investing.

 

His Legacy

 

Graham's work is legendary in investment circles. He's been credited as the creator of the security analysis profession. While best known as Warren Buffett's mentor, Graham was also a famous author, most notably for his books, "Security Analysis" (1934) and "The Intelligent Investor" (1949). Graham was one of the first to solely use financial analysis to successfully invest in stocks. He was also instrumental in drafting many elements of the Securities Act of 1933, also known as the "Truth in Securities Act," which, among other things, required companies to provide financial statements certified by independent accountants. This made Graham's work of financial analysis much easier and more efficient, and in this new paradigm, he succeeded. 

 

His Beginnings

 

Graham was a star student at Columbia University in New York, and went to work on Wall Street shortly after graduation in 1914. He built up a sizable personal nest egg over the next 15 years with the use of his keen attention to details. Even so, he hadn't yet honed his investment strategy.

 

He lost most of his money in the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. After learning a hard lesson about risk, he wrote "Security Analysis" (published in 1934), which chronicled Graham's methods to analyze and value securities. This book has been used for decades in finance courses as the seminal work in the field.

 

His Highs and Lows

 

His losses in the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent bear market during the Great Depression led Graham to hone his investment techniques. These techniques sought to profit in stocks while minimizing downside risk. He did this by buying shares of companies whose shares traded far below the companies' liquidation value. 

 

In simple terms, his goal was to buy a dollar's worth of assets for 50 cents, and he did that very well, both in theory and in practice.

 

There were two general ways that Graham used to do this. The first method was the use of market psychology. That is, using the fear and greed of the market to his advantage. The second was to invest by the numbers.

 

His Theories: "Mr. Market" and Margin of Safety

 

Graham stressed the importance of looking at the market as one would a business partner who offers to buy you out, or sell you his interest daily. Graham referred to this imaginary person as "Mr. Market." Graham said that sometimes Mr. Market's price makes sense, but sometimes it is way too high or low given the economic realities of the business.

 

You, as the investor, are free to buy Mr. Market's interest, sell out to him or even ignore him if you don't like his price. You may ignore him because he always comes back tomorrow with a different offer. This is the "use market" psychology. Graham viewed the freedom to be able to say "no" as a major advantage the average investor had over the professional who was required to be invested at all times, regardless of the current valuation of securities.

 

Graham also stressed the importance of always having a margin of safety in one's investments. This meant only buying into a stock at a price that is well below a conservative valuation of the business. This is important because it allows profit on the upside as the market eventually revalues the stock to its fair value, and it also gives some protection on the downside if things don't work out as planned and the business falters. This was the mathematical side of his work.

 

His Life as a Great Investor and Teacher

 

In addition to his investment work, Graham taught a class in security analysis at his alma mater, Columbia University. Here, he was fascinated with the process and strategy of investing - just as much as he was fascinated with making money. To this end, he wrote "The Intelligent Investor" in 1949. This book provided more practical advice to the common investor than did "Security Analysis," and it became one of the best-selling investment books of all time.

 

Warren Buffett describes "The Intelligent Investor" as "by far the best book on investing ever written" - high praise for a relatively simple book. Buffett has said that Graham was incredibly generous toward others especially with his investment ideas. In fact, Graham spent the better part of his retirement years working on new, simplified formulas to help average investors invest in stocks. Buffett now too follows this credo as he views his annual meetings as a chance to share his knowledge with the average investor.

 

After reading "The Intelligent Investor" at age19, Buffett enrolled in Columbia Business School in order to study under Graham, and they subsequently developed a lifelong friendship. Later, he worked for Graham at his company, the Graham-Newman Corporation, which was similar to a closed-end mutual fund. Buffett worked there for two years until Graham decided to close the business and retire.

 

Afterward, many of Graham's clients asked Warren Buffett to manage their money, and, as they say, the rest is history. Buffett went on to develop his own strategy, which differed from Graham's in that he stressed the importance of a business's quality and of holding investments indefinitely. Graham would typically invest based purely on the numbers of a company, and he would sell an investment at a predetermined value. Even so, Buffett has said that no one ever lost money by following Graham's methods and advice.

 

If you're really interested in getting better results from your investments, then you should to read (and even re-read) Graham's work.

 

The Bottom Line

 

If you're wondering how Graham fared on his investments, it has been said that he averaged about a 20% annual return through his many years of managing money, although details of Graham's investments are not readily available. He achieved these results at a time when buying common stocks was widely regarded as a pure gamble, but Graham bought stocks with a method that both provided both low risk and a good return. For this reason, Graham was a true pioneer of financial analysis.

 

本文翻譯由兄弟財經提供

文章來源：http://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/ben_graham.asp