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A Note About Benjamin Graham
by Jason Zweig
Who was Benjamin Graham, and why should you listen to him?
Graham was not only one of the best investors who ever lived; he was also the greatest practical investment thinker of all time. Before Graham, money managers behaved much like a medieval guild, guided largely by
superstition, guesswork, and arcane rituals. Graham’s Security Analysis was the textbook that transformed this musty circle into a modern profession.
本杰明·格雷厄姆是谁?为什么要听从他的建议?
格雷厄姆不仅是最好的投资实践家,也是历来最好的投资思想家。在他之前,资金管理活动就像中世纪的行会,充满了迷信、猜测和巫术。这本书将本来乌烟瘴气的圈子转变为现代职业。
And The Intelligent Investoris the first book ever to describe, for individual investors, the emotional framework and analytical tools that are essential to financial success. It remains the single best book on
investing ever written for the general public. The Intelligent Investor was the first book I read when I joined ForbesMagazine as a cub reporter in 1987, and I was struck by Graham’s certainty that, sooner
or later, all bull markets must end badly. That October, U.S. stocks suffered their worst one-day crash in history, and I was hooked. (Today, after the wild bull market of the late 1990s and the brutal bear market
that began in early 2000, The Intelligent Investorreads more prophetically than ever.)
《聪明的投资者》是第一本为个人投资者提供情绪框架和分析工具的著作,这对成功投资而言至关重要。至今,这本书仍然是面向大众的最好的投资著作。《聪明的投资者》是我1987年加入《福布斯杂志》后阅读的第一本书。我被格雷厄姆的论断所吸引,他认为所有的的牛市早晚会转熊。那年十月,美国股市经历了单日最大跌幅,我也被深度套牢。(今天,再经历了20世纪90年代疯狂的牛市,和21世纪初的残酷牛市后,《聪明的投资者》这本书显得比以往更具预测性了)。
Graham came by his insights the hard way: by feeling firsthand the anguish of financial loss and by studying for decades the history and psychology of the markets. He was born Benjamin Grossbaum on May 9, 1894, in London; his father was a dealer in china dishes and figurines. The family moved to New York when Ben was a year old. At first they lived the good life—with a maid, a cook, and a French governess—on upper Fifth Avenue. But Ben’s father died in 1903, the porcelain business faltered, and the family slid haltingly into poverty. Ben’s mother turned their home into a boardinghouse; then, borrowing money to trade stocks “on margin,” she was wiped out in the crash of 1907. For the rest of his life, Ben would recall the humiliation of cashing a check for his mother and hearing the bank teller ask, “Is Dorothy Grossbaum good for five dollars?”
格雷厄姆的见解来之不易:来自于他遭受财务损失后的切肤之痛,以及对数十年市场走势和心理的研究。1894年5月9日,他出生于伦敦,原名叫本杰明·格拉汉姆。他的父亲是瓷器和雕塑经销商。在格雷厄姆一岁时,举家迁往纽约。他们开始生活的很不错—住在第五大道上区,拥有一个女仆、一个厨师以及一位法国管家。但当本杰明的父亲于1903年去世的时候,这一切都变了:瓷器生意逐渐萎缩,家庭也逐步步入贫困。本杰明的母亲不得不家搬到寄宿处,然后借钱从事股票的保证金交易。1907年的股灾将本杰明母亲的本金一扫而光。本杰明时常会想起这段时间遭受的屈辱,他的母亲兑付支票时,银行出纳会问,“多萝西格拉汉姆的名字值5美元吗?”
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