Sunday, November 28, 2010

Intro Balance Sheet Analysis ~ Bruce Greenwald

The enduring value of Security Analysis rests on certain critical ideas that were then, and remain, fundamental to any well-conceived investment strategy. The first of these is the distintion between "investment" and "speculation" as defined by Graham and Dodd :

An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis,
promises safety of principal and a satisfactory return.
Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.


The critical parts of this definition are "thorough analysis" and "safety of principal and a satisfactory return." Nothing about these requirements has changed since 1934.

A second related idea is that of focusing on the intrinsic of a security. It is according to Graham and Dodd,

that value which is justified by the facts,
eg., the assets, earnings, dividends, [and] definite prospects,
as distinct, let us say, from market quotations
established by market manipulation or distorted by psychological excesses.
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