Security Analysis: The Classic 1940 Edition

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#1
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Security Analysis 1940 edition

I know many of us are aware of this Investment Bible but for the sake of the newcomers, I would like to share this book.

This is the 1940 2nd edition, which incidentally, is Warren Buffett's favourite.
I own a copy of the 4th edition, 1962 and I feel there is a HUGE difference between these two books. The 3rd and 4th editions are similar while 1st and 2nd seems to pair each other better.

I would not dare to make a judgement which edition is better, but if Mr Buffett named this edition as his favorite and read this 4 times at least, my guess is we all should take a closer look.

This is not for light reading and it involves a rudimentary understanding of accounting terms. However it is not termed as a classic for nothing.
I would personally term this book as for intermediate investors but ALL investors should at least be aware of this book existence.

Do take note that the latest 6th(?) edition which is a rehash of this 2nd edition but with latest commentary isn't complete as this 2nd edition. Some sections are left out from the 6th edition.

PS: The 5th edition is NOT by Ben Graham. Don't get conned. The title is exactly the same. But just look at the pict in the Amz link I provided and you will be correct.

Below is an exerpt from the Amazon reviews.


I know not who will read this, but perhaps I can act as a MENTOR to you, and we will never meet. In all of life there are short cuts that can shave years of trial, error, and pain, that others who do not learn the shortcuts must pay the price. Each generation has to learn what the previous generation has learned. Sometime they don't, and the results are clearly evident in the histories that we read, and take for granted.

No one argues that the greatest investor of the 20th century is Warren Buffett. He has an Einstein type brain lodged inside his skull. You couple this enormous intellect with a laser-like focus and discipline, and you still don't have the world's greatest investor. What Buffet needed was the skill sets, a template that he could fall back on to face every conceivable business analysis, in any type of economic environment.

Remember it was Buffett in the height of the bull market in the late 1960's that cashed in the investment partnership he ran, and sent back the money to every investor along with a letter. During the height of the bull craze absolutely equivalent to the Internet craze we all went through a few years ago, Buffett had this to say. When the game that is played is no longer the game I understand, it's time to leave the game. He did, and saved a fortune in the bear market that ensued - the worst bear market since the Great Depression.

How did Warren Buffett do it? It was simple. There's an expression that Isaac Newton arguably the greatest intellect of the last five hundred years use to tell people. It's called OTSOG; it means On The Shoulders of Giants. Newton was implying that if he had seen more than others, if he knew more than others; it is by standing ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS. He meant Euclid, and the earlier Greeks, and all the knowledge they had accumulated.

Warren Buffett would tell you himself that he has stood on the shoulders of giants. His giant was Benjamin Graham. Even Buffet's towering intellect, laser like focus, and hardwired brain for compounding, would not have been enough to insure financial success without Benjamin Graham as his mentor. Today, you and I have the same opportunity as Buffett.

Although we can never sit in the same classroom as Buffett did at Columbia University so many decades ago, while the master Benjamin Graham lectured at the front of the room, you and I can read his masterpiece, which Buffett has called the BIBLE OF INVESTING.


Buffett is one of the two, or three richest men in the world. He still fly's on a privately owned $50 million Gulf stream jet, and reads the 1940 edition of Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis. The same book you have the opportunity to buy, and own for your very own today. I have heard him say, that he has read it from cover to cover more than a dozen times. He has read the other editions as well. This edition is the treasure, because it is still in the voice of Benjamin Graham himself, and it is the second edition, after Graham worked out the kinks that were in the first edition published in 1934 during the Great Depression.

Who will Benefit from this book?

If you are involved with the market, perhaps a student interested in the market, or run billions of dollars, which I have done in my lifetime, anybody will benefit from this book. Is it easy to read - of course not? Will you understand everything you read - Not a chance? It really doesn't matter. You will take out of it what you need to take out of it, and each time you open it, you will take out more.

It may take months and years for Graham to teach you the lessons you need to learn, but he will teach you, just as he taught Buffett. Remember Buffett wasn't his only successful student. There were many other MASTERS that were created in that classroom at Columbia so many decades ago. An example are the folks that ran and run Sequoia Capital, a value hunting firm that's been around for decades, outperforming all their competitors.

There is really no other book that can give you the FORMAL GROUNDING that you need to become a true player in the stock market. Even now, forty years after I started reading Graham and Dodd, I am still learning something on every page I read over and over again.

Many other reviewers have taken the time to explain what it on those pages; I will not rehash them here. I need to motivate you to ACT, to click the button that says, I want to own this book, so please allow me to share one or two stories with you.

When I was a teenager going to college in New York, my accounting professor got me an afternoon job with John W. Bristol, the foremost money manager of the 1950's and 60's. He ran the Princeton University portfolio among many others of equal prestige. Always sitting behind him was a well-worn copy of Graham and Dodd.

Two years later with Arthur Andersen, I had the honor of auditing the richest man in the world - Daniel K. Ludwig. He was worth $5 billion in the early 1970's. No education, 5th grade maybe, and forget college. Behind him was Graham and Dodd, the only book there, and it was underlined and annotated. This man was secretive and shy; he had only two friends in life - Howard Hughes, and Clark Gable.

I implore you, READ THIS BOOK and CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

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#2
How do we get our hands on a 2nd edition SA? Anyone knows?
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#3
There used to be quite a few copies of 2nd hand SA in http://www.betterworldbooks.com/. I bought the 1st edition from there at quite low price.
The next alternative will be www.amazon.com.
But, typically, the price with shipping will be around S$50 at least.

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#4
Jon-san Wrote:How do we get our hands on a 2nd edition SA? Anyone knows?

I got mine off Amazon some years back.

I just checked Amazon - 1st edition US$31, 2nd edition US$41. Great prices. If you are a hardcore Graham-and-Dodd fan, buy both. Otherwise, either one is fine. The 2nd edition references some examples in the 1st edition, so if you are a compulsive reader and don't have the 1st edition, you might feel compelled to get the 1st edition too. That's how I ended up buying both. I've read both and don't think there's that much difference between them.
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#5
Thanks, d.o.g. And yeokiwi. Was actually planning sometime back to buy SA off the shelf from times/kino. Didn't realize there was a difference between the various editions.
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#6
I have the 1st and the 2nd edition. It's very difficult to understand what is written there. Methinks never mind. Read once cannot understand, read twice.
A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
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#7
There's a lot of information embedded. I think it takes a few reads to be able to absorb the information. it's not easy going through the chapters. But after if you read and understand it, it's worth the effort. The information is based on very old examples but the concept is still very applicable.
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#8
Been wanting to get this book but was too costly, having seen how much it was going for in Kino or Borders. Since Yeokiwi has kindly suggested Betterworldbooks, took the plunge and ordered one. Hopefully the condition isn't too bad hehe.

Have borrowed the '51 edition to read(not completely, of course). Really heavy stuff.
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#9
(28-12-2010, 03:29 PM)Satchmo Wrote: Been wanting to get this book but was too costly, having seen how much it was going for in Kino or Borders. Since Yeokiwi has kindly suggested Betterworldbooks, took the plunge and ordered one. Hopefully the condition isn't too bad hehe.

Have borrowed the '51 edition to read(not completely, of course). Really heavy stuff.

Don't worry. I had bought quite a few books from them and all of them arrived in good conditions. I had even asked for refund once as I thought the book did not arrived. But, the book arrived and I had to refund them back Big Grin.

The only grouse is that the book will take quite a long time before it reaches your mailbox.

Besides, buying from betterworldbooks also helps to promote literacy in poor countries. Smile

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#10
You can try the 6th edition of Security Analysis. It reproduces the chapters of the 2nd edition (some chapters deemed outdated were taken out). There are added gems like commentaries from value-investment gurus like Seth Klarman, Bruce Berkowitz and a foreword by Warren Buffett.

You will find that the commentaries are easier to understand.
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