聪明的投资人：本杰明.格林厄姆

 

以“价值投资之父”和“华尔街院长”著称的本杰明.格林厄姆（1894-1976）非常擅长在股票市场为自己和其客户以小风险赚钱。格林厄姆创造并传授了许多当下投资人仍然沿用的安全和成功投资的原则。

 

这些想法建立在格林厄姆对许多公司的改革和财务评估上。他的经历给他带来了简单有效的逻辑，在此基础上格林厄姆建立了一个投资的成功方式。

 

他的遗产

格林厄姆的工作是投资界的传奇。他被誉为证券分析行业的创造者。尽管他因是沃伦.巴菲特的导师而著名，格林厄姆还是一位著名的作家，他最著名的书籍有《证券分析》（1934年）和《聪明的投资人》（1949年）。格林厄姆是第一个使用财务分析成功投资股票的人。他为也为称为“真实证券法案”的1933年证券法案的起草提供了很多帮助，这条法案要求公司经由独立的会计师提供财务报表。这使得格林厄姆的财务分析工作更容易、更有效率，在这种新的模式中，他取得了成功。

 

他的开始

格林厄姆曾是纽约哥伦比亚大学的明星学生，1914年毕业之后曾在华尔街短暂工作。在接下来的15他用对细节敏锐的观察建立了一个庞大的个人养老基金。即便如此，他还没有展露其投资策略。

 

他在1929年的股市崩盘和随后的经济大萧条中几乎损失了所有资产。在这个沉痛的风险中学习之后，他编写了“证券分析”（1934年出版），这其中记录了格林厄姆对有价证券的分析方法。这本书已经在世界范围内的金融课上被当作基础部分运用了几十年。

 

他人生的高潮和低谷

1929年股市崩盘和之后经济大萧条中损失是格林厄姆开始展露他的投资技巧。这些技巧在降低风险的同时寻求利益。他通过购买那些股票交易价格低于其清算价值的公司的股票达成这一目标。

 

简单的说，他的目标是用50美分购买价值一美元的东西，而且他在理论和实践中做的都非常好。

 

格林厄姆用两种方法达到这一目标。第一种是市场理论的运用。也就是利用人们对市场的恐惧和贪婪。第二种方法是运用数字投资。

 

他的理论：“市场先生”和“安全边际”

格林厄姆强调把市场当作一个从你购买或者向你出卖利益的生意合作伙伴的重要性。格林厄姆把这个想象中的人称为市场先生。格林厄姆说市场先生的价格有时有意义，但是有时却对经济现实来说太高或者太低。

 

你，作为一个投资人，可以自由的从市场先生购买或者出售给他利益，如果你不喜欢他的价格你甚至不用理睬他。你可以忽视他是因为他永远会带着不同的价格在第二天回来。这是消费品市场理论。格林厄姆把普通投资人能够自由交易当作相对那些无视股票当前评估价值而一直交易的专业投资人的最大优势。

 

格林厄姆当然也强调在投资中有“安全边际”的重要性。这意味着只购买那些价格远低于保守业务估值的股票。这很重要，这能保证股票在升到公允价格后的利润，也为事情不按计划发展或者受阻提供保护。这是他工作的数学一面。

 

作为伟大投资者和老师的人生

 

除了投资工作，格林厄姆还在他的母校哥伦比亚大学教授证券分析。在那里，他对投资策略和过程痴迷就像他曾经对赚钱的痴迷一样。最后，他在1949年撰写了《聪明的投资人》一书。这本书比《证券分析》向普通投资人提供了更多的实用性建议，它也一直是最畅销的投资书籍之一。

 

巴菲特把《聪明的投资人》描述成“有史以来最好的投资书籍”来高度赞扬这本相对简单的书。巴菲特曾说格林厄姆对他人极其慷慨，尤其在他的投资理念上。事实上，格林厄姆花费他退休时光中较好的一部分在新的、简单的公式上以帮助普通投资者投资股票。巴菲特现在也通过年会与普通投资者分享经验来遵循这一信条。

 

在十九岁读完《聪明的投资人》之后，巴菲特报考了哥伦比亚大学商学院以便向格林厄姆学习，之后他们建立了终身的友谊。之后，巴菲特在一家类似限额共同基金名为格林厄姆纽曼合伙人公司的公司为格林厄姆工作。直到格林厄姆决定停止业务退休，巴菲特为他工作了两年。

 

之后，格林厄姆的许多客户要求巴菲特来管理他们的资金，按照他们说的，过去的成为了历史。巴菲特继续发展他自己的战略，他的策略与格林厄姆不同，他注重业务的质量的和无限期持有的投资。格林厄姆的投资通常纯粹基于一个公司的数字，并且在一个预定价值出售。尽管如此，巴菲特曾说过没有人因为遵循格林厄姆的方法和建议而赔钱。

 

如果你想让你的投资获得更好的结果，你应该读读（甚至是反复读）格林厄姆的书。

 

结束语

 

如果你想知道格林厄姆在投资上的表现，虽然其投资细节不容易获取，但是前面已经提到在其多年的资金管理生涯中始终维持着一个平20%的年回报。格林厄姆在购买普通股票被认为是赌博的时候取得了这样的成绩，但是他却是用一种低风险良好回报的方式购买股票。因为这个原因，格林厄姆被当作财务分析的先驱。

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.

 

本文翻译由兄弟财经提供

文章来源：http://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/ben_graham.asp