On Being an Intelligent Investor
Musings from a decade-old journey
One day back in 2011, I was so eager to come back home from the office for a lunch break. Not because I was hungry but because I was hungry to read few more pages of the book I had been reading. It was the first book I was reading on investing.
Although I had begun my investing journey in 2007 — starting with mutual funds, then direct equity in 2008, it was not until 2011 when I really started looking at it closely to learn something. The value investing bug had bitten me and I started to read a lot of value investing blogs. There was only a little financial literature on the internet in 2011 unlike we have today but wherever I read, almost everyone had suggested reading this book. One of those blog posts mentioned the legendary investor Warren Buffett quoting Chapter 8 and chapter 20 of this book that formed the basis of his investing principles. Naturally, I became so curious and had bought that book.
‘Intelligent investor’ by Ben Graham was that book.
I didn’t know what to expect from the book but the fact that so many people recommended it on the internet as a fundamental book so I thought it must be good. Also, the title was intriguing. Who wouldn’t want to be an intelligent investor? I hoped I would get some secret tips or methods from an experienced teacher and a practitioner of value investing. I was eager to read. I held my urge to directly read the 8th and 20th chapters and started reading from the beginning. I had read no comprehensive book on personal finance or investing until then so I felt like it was an education for me. That’s why I was so eager to read during the lunch break as well. I read for 15 mins and went back to office. I continued to read in the evening and the next day.
I realized after a few chapters that this was not a book that would give you tips and tricks. It was not saying — do this, this and this and that’s how you pick a stock to invest. No, this was not that kind of book. This was a book that would give you principles.
The various kinds of investors out there and what kind of investor are you? How you should approach investing? What should be your mindset? How not lose money in the market than gaining from it? Who is Mr market and how does he behave and what you should do as a reaction to succeed? What can we learn from history and people’s behavior? What is the margin of safety? And much more. It was about the…
