Quotes About Security

Quien se conforme con ganancias seguras, difícilmente llegará a amasar grandes riquezas; quien lo fíe todo a grandes aventuras, frecuentemente quebrará y caerá en la pobreza: es bueno, por lo tanto, proteger las aventuras con los frutos de la certidumbre para que puedan soportar las pérdidas. Sir Francis Bacon

Security analysis does not assume that a past average will be repeated, but only that it supplies a rough index to what may be expected of the future. A trend, however, cannot be used as a rough index; it represents a definite prediction of either better or poorer results, and it must be either right or wrong.

Graham's definition of investing could not be clearer: "An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return."1 Note

you must deliberately protect yourself against serious losses; you must aspire to "adequate," not extraordinary, performance.

For most investors, allocating at least 10% of your retirement assets to TIPS is an intelligent way to keep a portion of your money absolutely safe—and entirely beyond the reach of the long, invisible claws of inflation.

The future of security prices is never predictable. And as you read ahead in the book, notice how everything else Graham tells you is designed to help you grapple with that truth. Since you cannot predict the behavior of the markets, you must learn how to predict and control your own behavior.

Investment must always consider the price as well as the quality of the security.

The defensive investor must confine himself to the shares of important companies with a long record of profitable operations and in strong financial condition.

Benjamin Graham

we say that to have a true investment there must be present a true margin of safety. And a true margin of safety is one that can be demonstrated by figures, by persuasive reasoning, and by reference to a body of actual experience.

Benjamin Graham

It follows from this reasoning that the majority of security owners should elect the defensive classification. They do not have the time, or the determination, or the mental equipment to embark upon investing as a quasi-business. They should therefore be satisfied with the excellent return now obtainable from a defensive portfolio (and with even less), and they should stoutly resist the recurrent temptation to increase this return by deviating into other paths.

The rate of return sought should be dependent, rather, on the amount of intelligent effort the investor is willing and able to bring to bear on his task. The minimum return goes to our passive investor, who wants both safety and freedom from concern. The maximum return would be realized by the alert and enterprising investor who exercises maximum intelligence and skill.

Hence, after this foreshortened discussion of the major considerations, we once again enunciate the same basic compromise policy for defensive investors—namely that at all times they have a significant part of their funds in bond-type holdings and a significant part also in equities.

Only by insisting on what Graham called the "margin of safety"—never overpaying, no matter how exciting an investment seems to be—can you minimize your odds of error.

Todo el mundo debe conservar parte de su patrimonio en el seguro refugio del dinero en metálico.

Security analysis, as a study, must necessarily concern itself as much as possible with principles and methods which are valid at all times—or, at least, under all ordinary conditions.

As a rule of thumb, investors should spend the bulk of their time on the disclosures of the security under study, and they should spend significant time on the reports of competitors.

Without banks, you would be burying your money in coffee cans in the back yard

Put a cat to watch a flock and the wolves eat well.

If you collect a fat flock, you don't leave it grazing beside a wolf's den.

Put a cat to guard the sheep and the wolves would eat well.

weakness invites war

Only a fool leaves cash where a servant can find it,' he said.