Quote for the Week
Graham was concerned with limiting his risk and he didn’t want to lose money. People don’t remember what happened before and how things were. And that’s one of the mistakes people make in investing as well.
In the last 15 years, it’s been a remarkable stock market. But people forget what things were like during the 1930s. I think Graham – because he lived through that period – remembered it, was scared it would happen again and did everything he could to avoid it.
But in the process of avoiding it, he missed a lot of opportunities. That’s one of the problems you always have — you don’t really lose, but you don’t really make, either. I believe you should remember what took place — even if you weren’t around at the time. One of the problems of a lot of the people who went through the Depression — Ben Graham, Jerry Newman and others — is that they keep on thinking that things will always be like that.
Even Graham used to say — and quite correctly — that you can’t run your investments as if a repeat of 1932 is around the corner. We can have a recession and things can get bad. But you can’t plan on that happening. People who did missed this tremendous market. — Walter Schloss (source)
From the Archives
Last Call
- Bracketology (2025 Edition) – Better Letter
- Beautiful vs. Practical Advice – M. Housel
- We’re Still Dancing: How Bubbles Grow – Owenomics
- Good News: Skew, for Lack of a Better Word, is Good – Klement on Investing
- You Might Think Industry Growth Drives Stock Returns. Here’s Why You’d Be Wrong – L. Swedroe
- Too Many Active Funds Are Priced to Fail – J. Ptak
- Why You Need a Warmup – Range Widely
- The Forgotten Story of the Woman Who Invented the Dishwasher – Popular Science
- King of Fruits – Works in Progress