Benjamin Graham is known as the father of value investing,
and he pioneered a rigorous, quantitative approach to
security analysis. Graham started investing during the early
1900s. The landscape then was very different. For example,
investing was not considered a respectable profession. It was
viewed more like astrology or a game of chance—run by crooks
and people with inside information. Using inside information was
legal at the time. His groundbreaking investment strategy had its
roots in his own personal hardship.
Value investing requires analytical rigor, discipline, patience, and
willingness to go against the crowd. Graham was able to follow
this approach, and his investment firm posted annualized returns
of about 20% per year from 1936 to 1956—roughly double that of
the market.
