History

Benjamin Graham (1894-1976) is considered the father of value investment. He formalised his ideas in the book Security Analysis (1934) and published his wider investment philosophy in The Intelligent Investor in (1949). Both books are still available today.

Graham’s writings transformed investment analysis into a rigorous discipline. The New York Society of Security Analysts wrote that Graham ‘is to investing what Euclid is to geometry’.

As well as being one of the most successful investors of all time, Graham also taught a course in value investment theory at Columbia University. Many of the greatest investors of the last 50 years began their investment careers as his students.

One such student was Warren Buffett. After studying under Graham, Buffett asked if he could work in Graham’s company. Buffett worked under Graham until Graham’s retirement, whereupon Buffett struck out on his own.