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| website = [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-intelligent-investor-rev-ed-benjamin-graham harpercollins.com]
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'''''The Intelligent Investor''''' is Benjamin Graham’s 1949 guide to value investing, written to help ordinary investors pursue disciplined, long-term results rather than speculation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Financial planning – new materials |url=https://www.loc.gov/nls/new-materials/book-lists/financial-planning/ |website=National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> It distinguishes between “defensive” and “enterprising” investors, frames market swings with the “Mr. Market” allegory, and makes “margin of safety” its central rule.<ref name="ORLY9780061745171" /> <ref>{{cite web |title=Graham & Doddsville – Issue 19 (Fall 2013) |url=https://business.columbia.edu/sites/default/files-efs/imce-uploads/Graham%20%26%20Doddsville%20-%20Issue%2019%20-%20Fall%202013.pdf |website=Heilbrunn Center, Columbia Business School |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> In the revised and annotated edition, Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig adds chapter-by-chapter commentary alongside a preface by Warren E. Buffett.<ref>{{cite web |title=Title page — The Intelligent Investor, Rev. Ed. |url=https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-intelligent-investor/9780061745171/text/9780061745171_Titlepage.xhtml |website=O’Reilly |publisher=O’Reilly Media |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> HarperCollins’ 75th-anniversary Third Edition retains Graham’s original text and presents updated commentary, released on 22 October 2024.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Intelligent Investor, 3rd Ed. |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-intelligent-investor-3rd-ed-benjamin-grahamjason-zweig |website=HarperCollins |publisher=HarperCollins |date=22 October 2024 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> Its reach has been broad: Fortune reported in 2021 that the book “has sold millions of copies,” and the publisher highlights Warren Buffett’s line that it is “by far the best book about investing ever written.”<ref>{{cite news |title=Why Warren Buffett’s “Bible of investing” still matters more than ever |url=https://fortune.com/2021/04/05/warren-buffett-bible-of-investing/ |work=Fortune |date=5 April 2021 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref><ref name="Harper2024">{{cite web |title=The Intelligent Investor, 3rd Ed. |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-intelligent-investor-3rd-ed-benjamin-grahamjason-zweig |website=HarperCollins |publisher=HarperCollins |date=22 October 2024 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
== Chapter summary ==
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🛟 '''20 – “Margin of Safety” as the Central Concept of Investment.'''
== Background & reception ==
🖋️ '''Author & writing'''. Benjamin Graham—often credited with pioneering value investing—taught at Columbia Business School and co-authored ''Security Analysis'' with David Dodd before turning to a broader readership with ''The Intelligent Investor''.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of value investing |url=https://business.columbia.edu/heilbrunn/about/valueinvestinghistory |website=Heilbrunn Center, Columbia Business School |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> The book first appeared with Harper & Brothers in 1949 as a practical guide for lay investors.<ref name="OCLC1723191" /> Graham continued to revise the work, culminating in a Fourth Revised Edition published in 1973 that added a preface by Warren E. Buffett.<ref>{{cite web |title=The intelligent investor: a book of practical counsel (4th ed., 1973) |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/intelligent-investor-a-book-of-practical-counsel/oclc/906211587 |website=WorldCat |publisher=OCLC |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> The modern annotated version leaves Graham’s text intact while adding Jason Zweig’s running commentaries and notes; a 75th-anniversary Third Edition appeared in 2024.<ref name="Harper2024" /> Key devices and frameworks—including the defensive/enterprising divide, “Mr. Market,” and the emphasis on margin of safety—anchor the book’s case-led, didactic voice.<ref name="ORLY9780061745171" /> <ref>{{cite web |title=Graham & Doddsville – Issue 19 (Fall 2013) |url=https://business.columbia.edu/sites/default/files-efs/imce-uploads/Graham%20%26%20Doddsville%20-%20Issue%2019%20-%20Fall%202013.pdf |website=Heilbrunn Center, Columbia Business School |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
📈 '''Commercial reception'''. HarperCollins reissued the revised/annotated edition in the mid-2000s, with the U.S. product page listing an on-sale date of 21 February 2006.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Intelligent Investor, Rev. Ed. |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-intelligent-investor-rev-ed-benjamin-graham |website=HarperCollins |publisher=HarperCollins |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> Fortune reported in 2021 that the book “has sold millions of copies.”<ref>{{cite news |title=Why Warren Buffett’s “Bible of investing” still matters more than ever |url=https://fortune.com/2021/04/05/warren-buffett-bible-of-investing/ |work=Fortune |date=5 April 2021 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> To mark its 75th year, HarperCollins released a Third Edition on 22 October 2024.<ref name="Harper2024" /> The title also extends into media: when The Wall Street Journal launched Jason Zweig’s personal-finance column in 2008, it explicitly noted that the column “takes its name” from Graham’s book.<ref>{{cite news |title=Stop Worrying, and Learn to Love the Bear |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121582067258747665 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=12 July 2008 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
👍 '''Praise'''. HarperCollins prominently quotes Warren E. Buffett’s endorsement—“By far the best book about investing ever written”—on the book’s anniversary edition page.<ref name="Harper2024" /> Bloomberg’s 25 October 2024 weekend review argued that the book remains worth reading 75 years on, emphasizing its behavioral discipline over short-term profit seeking.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Intelligent Investor Is Still Worth Reading 75 Years Later |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-25/benjamin-graham-s-the-intelligent-investor-is-worth-reading-75-years-later |work=Bloomberg News |date=25 October 2024 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> The ''Financial Times'' has likewise recommended Graham’s classic in guidance on how to invest like Warren Buffett.<ref>{{cite news |title=How to invest like Warren Buffett |url=https://www.ft.com/content/25870c9c-9d69-11e3-a599-00144feab7de |work=Financial Times |date=28 February 2014 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
👎 '''Criticism'''. In a 3 November 2024 piece, ''The Straits Times'' noted that parts of the text feel dated and suggested that a strict Graham-style value tilt would have lagged markets over the prior three decades.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Intelligent Investor is still worth reading 75 years later |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/the-intelligent-investor-is-still-worth-reading-75-years-later |work=The Straits Times |date=3 November 2024 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> Broader critiques of Graham-style value investing point to long droughts: ''The Economist'' argued in 2020 that value investing has struggled to remain relevant amid the rise of hard-to-measure intangibles,<ref>{{cite news |title=Value investing is struggling to remain relevant |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/11/14/value-investing-is-struggling-to-remain-relevant |work=The Economist |date=14 November 2020 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> and ''Barron’s'' reported in 2024 on research describing value’s underperformance versus growth over multiple decades.<ref>{{cite news |title=Value Investing Has Been a Loser for Decades. Now Isn’t the Time to Give Up. |url=https://www.barrons.com/articles/value-investing-loser-growth-18fdc4cb |work=Barron’s |date=1 July 2024 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
🌍 '''Impact & adoption'''. The book’s concepts are embedded in Columbia Business School’s value-investing tradition, where the school’s resources and communications regularly foreground Graham’s approach and list the revised ''Intelligent Investor'' among recommended readings.<ref>{{cite web |title=Successful Value Investing: Finding Gems Amid the Junk |url=https://business.columbia.edu/insights/finance-economics/successful-value-investing-finding-gems-amid-junk |website=Columbia Business School – Insights |publisher=Columbia University |date=10 February 2023 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> University syllabi continue to assign chapters from the book—for example, Rutgers’ Applied Portfolio Management course and NYU Stern’s value-investing seminars—illustrating its ongoing use in curricula.<ref>{{cite web |title=Applied Portfolio Management (syllabus) |url=https://myrbs.business.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/syllabi/390-finance/22_390_658.pdf |website=Rutgers Business School |publisher=Rutgers University |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Value Investing (course syllabus) |url=https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~sternfin/Rosenwald/Syllabus.pdf |website=NYU Stern School of Business |publisher=New York University |date=30 September 2021 |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref> Beyond classrooms, the book’s title has become a recurring media reference point through The Wall Street Journal’s ''Intelligent Investor'' column.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jason Zweig — author page |url=https://www.wsj.com/news/author/jason-zweig |website=The Wall Street Journal |publisher=Dow Jones & Company |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
== Related content & more ==
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