Two of The World’s Greatest Investor

Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha," is considered by many to be the greatest investor ever. He is also known for giving much of his $40 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to bringing innovations in health and learning. Buffett is primarily a value investor that closely follows Benjamin Graham's investing philosophy after having worked at Graham's firm, Graham-Newman.

Buffett has several excellent investing rules. You can read about many of them in his company's (Berkshire Hathaway) annual reports, which are an excellent source of investing knowledge.

Here are three of Buffett's rules:

Rule No.1: Never lose money.

Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

If you lose money on an investment, it will take a much greater return to just break even, let alone make additional money. Minimize your losses by finding quality companies that are temporarily selling at discounted prices. Then follow good capital management principles and maintain your trailing stops. Also, sitting on a losing trade uses up time, money and mental capital. If you find yourself in this situation, it is time to move on.

The stock market is designed to transfer money from the active to the patient.

The best returns come from those who wait for the best opportunity to show itself before making a commitment. Those who chase the current hot stock usually end up losing more than they gain. Remain active in your analysis, look for quality companies at discounted prices and be patient waiting for them to reach their discounted price before buying.

The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect.

You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against it. Independent thinking and having confidence in what you believe is much more important than being the smartest person in the market. Most of the time, the best opportunities are found when everyone else has given up on the stock market. Over-confidence and emotion are the enemies of a high quality portfolio.

The Great Trader Gartman

In the October 1989 issue of Futures magazine, Dennis Gartman published 15 simple rules for trading. He is a successful trader who has experienced the gamut of trading from winning big to almost losing everything. Currently, he publishes The Gartman Letter, a daily publication for experienced investors and institutions.

Here are three of Gartman's best rules:

There is never one cockroach.

When you encounter a problem due to management malfeasance, expect many more to follow. Bad news often begets bad news. Should you encounter any hint of this kind of problem, avoid the stock and sell any shares you currently own.

In a bull market only be long. In a bear market only be short.

Approximately 60% of a stock's move is based on the overall move of the market, so go with the trend when investing or trading. As the saying goes, "The trend is your friend."

Don't make a trade until the fundamentals and technicals agree.

Fundamentals help to find quality companies that are selling at discounted prices. Technical analysis helps to determine when to buy, the exit target and where to set the trailing stop. A variation of this is to think like a fundamentalist and trade like a technician. When you understand the fundamental reasons that are driving the stock and the technicals confirm the fundamentals, then you can make the trade.

Patience Is A Trader's Virtue

Although the best investors and traders understand the importance of patience, it is one of the most difficult skills to learn as an investor and trader.

Dennis Gartman, a successful trader and publisher of The Gartman Letter has this to say about the value of patience: "Proper patience is needed throughout the lifecycle of the trade, at entry, while holding and exit."

Waiting for Your Entry Point

You have done your homework and have identified the entry point for a promising stock. Now you are waiting in anticipation for the price to reach your entry point. Instead of pulling back, the price lunges upward. You panic, entering an order above your planned entry point in a rush to make sure you don't miss the trade. By doing this, you give up some of your potential profit, but, more importantly, you actually violate the rules that caused you to enter the trade in the first place.

If you've ever let your emotions rule the day, you know that it can often lead to disappointing returns. In fact, impatient investors who violate their discipline may be headed down the path to ruin. Following a predetermined set of rules keeps the emotional side of trading and investing at bay.

Fishing for a Winner

Patient investing is similar to fishing. There are many fish in the lake and it isn't necessary to catch every fish that swims by in order to be successful. In fact, it's only necessary to catch those few that bite and fill up your net (or that meet your trading criteria).

It is important to remember that there are always many trading opportunities in the market, even in a tough stock market, so the difficulty is not so much in finding trading opportunities, but making sure the opportunities fit your trading rules. It is vital that you concern yourself with getting good entry points and making sure you have defined exit points along with stop losses without having to get in on every trade. If the stock doesn't want to bite, or it fails meet your criteria, then don't worry about it. Be patient. There will likely be another fish, or opportunity, right around the corner.

If you find that you have lost control and entered a stock before its time, it is usually best to exit the trade and wait for it to develop based on your predefined rules and not on your emotions. Take the costs associated with the trade as a lesson, learn from it and move on.

Waiting for the right entry point is an essential characteristic of every successful trader. If you find yourself tempted to enter an order before its time, step away and go over the reasons you selected the entry point once more. Then remind yourself that following your discipline will contribute to your success.

Give the Position Time to Develop

One of the stocks you have been following hits your entry point and you pull the trigger. After entering the trade, you enter a good-till-canceled bracketed order with your target and trailing stop, which define where you will take profit and where you will take a loss. Now you wait for the expected move to happen. As you watch the trade develop, it starts to move into a profitable position.

According to the original plan, this stock still has more room to run until it hits your defined target. But before you take the quick gain, the trade retreats and falls below your original entry point, but fails to hit your trailing stop. You panic and sell, generating a small loss. Just after you exit the trade, the price moves up again and reaches your target, only now you are out of the trade. Sound familiar? It turns out that in some cases, your well-thought-out plan will be right, and you'll let a fear of a loss get in the way of the trade proceeding as expected.

Rest assured, this is a common trait among many traders. Exhibiting patience with a good trade setup is a difficult task. It requires confidence in your research and in your system. While no one is infallible, the best traders trust their discipline to make them successful. They do not waver from their trailing stop methodology by letting the trade play out. If it incurs a loss, they capture all the relevant information to assess what went right and what went wrong. If their discipline needs to change, then so be it. But whatever you do, do not let your emotion take control - it will inevitably leads to losses.

That said, keep in mind that losses are part of trading. It is your discipline along with good entry points, trailing stops and exit targets that lead to consistent profits and keep you from incurring unwarranted losses. Stay patient and let your process go to work. If you are tempted to exit a trade prematurely, step away and go over the reasons why you originally set your stops and targets. Then remind yourself that it is discipline that makes a great trader.

Knowing When to Sell a Position

There are times when you follow your discipline faithfully, but despite your patience, the price of your stock barely moves. You have been patient and followed the rules - now what do you do?

In most cases, it is best to go back and re-examine your analysis of the trade. Take a fresh look and try to find what has changed. If something is different, does your new analysis change the original reason for entering the trade? If the rationale for the trade has changed, does your analysis call for you to avoid the stock at this price? If you should not be in the stock, then sell it immediately. On the other hand, if your analysis indicates that this stock meets all of your criteria to own and the entry point is very close then it makes sense to continue to hold your position.

In many cases, the price of your stock will approach your target, and being patient will work out well for you. Now comes the time when you need to close out your position. You can continue to be patient, waiting until the price hits your target or your trailing stop,or you can tighten up your stop to ensure that you capture a profit on the trade. In either case, it is time to reward your patience with a profitable trade.

While there is a little more discretion provided to selling, make sure that you make changes to targets and stops based on some pre-determined criteria. For example, you may decide that when a trade gets half-way between the entry and the target, you'll adjust the stop to the entry price.

Summary

In summary, so much of trading is psychological, making patience a great virtue for investors. Exhibiting patience when entering a trade and having patience while a trade develops are integral parts to successful trading and investing. However, allowing patience to turn into stubbornness is something you must always guard against; consistently exiting a trade according to predefined criteria is one of the best methods of improving your success as a trader. .

5 Investors Who Move The Market

There are people in every industry that have so much of an effect on it, it seems unfair. Golf has Tiger Woods, politics have the President of the United States, and the investing world has these players.

1. Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett has the distinction of the having celebrity status both in and out of the investing world. Of all of the leading voices in the market, Buffett is the largest, although his voice is rarely heard. Buffett is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a $184 billion company that owns controlling interests in companies like Geico, Netjets and many others. He is the third wealthiest person in the world and has made his empire as possibly the most successful value investor as well as a proponent of the buy and hold investing model.

During the peak of the Great Recession of 2009, Buffet wrote an op ed piece in the New York Times. It was hailed as a vote of confidence in an economy that was faltering. When Buffett speaks, the market listens, and it is easy to see simply by watching Wall Street's as well as the news media's reaction to all of his words.

2. Carl Icahn

Corporate raiders find companies that they perceived to be undervalued and purchase a controlling interest in the company, often allowing them to gain control of a certain number of board seats. With those board seats the corporate raider is able to make changes to the company which increases their value.

Carl Icahn may be one of the best known modern day corporate raiders. Some of his most famous attempts at taking control of companies include his battles with Trans World Airlines, Yahoo! and Time Warner. Recently, Haines Celestial Group, maker of organic foods and one of Mr. Icahn's holdings, announced a better-than-expected quarter, allowing Icahn to profit $124 million - a 100% gain in just one year.

3. Bill Gross

Known as the bond king, Bill Gross is the founder and chief investing officer of PIMCO, a global investing firm focused primarily on bond investing. He manages the $235 billion PIMCO Total Return Fund, a fund mostly invested in bonds. He was referred to by the New York Times as the nation's most prominent bond investor.

Mr. Gross is vocal about his views of world monetary policy and the investing community listens. Over the years he has made some legendary calls including a recent 2011 warning to investors to steer clear of treasuries because of their negative return when accounting for inflation. If history is a guide, even the largest institutional investors will listen very closely to this warning.

4. Dennis Gartman

Dennis Gartman is best known for his daily newsletter, The Gartman Letter. Each day at 2:30AM he wakes up to write his four page publication for delivery to all subscribers no later than 6:00AM. This newsletter is read by institutional investors all over the world because it contains commentary on the world markets. Of particular interest is his commentary on currency and commodities trading. If you're looking for one of the best informed predictions on the gold market, Dennis Gartman may be your trader of choice.

Not only is he a commentator, he is also a trader himself. His 22 rules of trading are a must-read for all traders. One of his rules is to understand mass psychology more than economics because markets are more based on human emotion more than economic factors.

5. The Computer

It may seem odd that the computer is a market mover but the effect of the computer on the modern day trading market is staggering. Computers now account for more than 70% of all daily trading volume. To put that in to perspective, for every three trades made by a human, seven trades are done by computer - and those seven trades could have taken place in under one second.

Because of this, a new question must be asked by the modern trader: What would the computer do? Many argue that looking at the characteristics of a company are no longer as important as studying the company's chart. Understanding moving averages and support levels may now be more important than knowing what a company does and what new products are in the pipeline.

One thing is certain: The computer is now just as - if not more - important than the large volume hedge fund and mutual fund traders.

The Bottom Line

Whether the market is rigged or not will remain a question asked by traders for many more generations but it is certain that these influential traders have a profound effect on movement of the global markets. You may be wise to keep an eye on their movements and market predictions.

Market Strength

Market Strength

Table of Contents

1) Market Strength: Introduction

2) Market Strength: S&P 500 Futures

3) Market Strength: Advancers To Decliners

4) Market Strength: Relative Strength Index and Arms

5) Market Strength: Oil and Bonds

6) Market Strength: Conclusion

Introduction

There is an old saying that seems to always apply to the investment world: "hindsight is 20/20". When looking one, three or six months into the past, we can easily tell what the market did and why it happened. But if you are looking to discover the trends of the market today, where do you look?

In this tutorial we will go over various indicators used by traders and brokers to find out where the markets will open and how they will trade throughout the day. This tutorial will include an explanation of S&P 500 futures, the advance/decline line, the Relative Strength Index, the Arms Index, the price of oil and bonds and the ability of these indicators to detect market strength. Long-term investors should be warned, however. Over the long term, these day-to-day fluctuations in the markets are nothing to worry about, and for them, the long-term upward drift is much more important.

S&P 500 Futures

If you've ever watched financial television before or after the markets open you will probably notice that they often quote the latest index futures price on the "bug" in the bottom corner. The futures market is an important concept and can be used to gauge the trend of the market.

Futures There are two types of futures contracts, financial and commodities. No matter which type of contract you buy the basic premise is the same. The buyer of the contract agrees to deliver the product (or cash for financial futures) at the contract price on the expiry date. A contract can be on anything from corn, wheat, oil or, in our case, a stock index. It should be noted that a majority of futures contracts get "closed out" before the delivery date and so no physical delivery actually takes place. The Standard and Poor's 500 index (S&P 500) contains many of the largest companies in the world, so it only makes sense that movement in the direction of the S&P futures is one of the best indicators of overall short-term market direction (Note: The Nasdaq futures are considered a good indicator of technology stocks). The word futures might make this indicator sound confusing but it really isn't. If S&P futures are up, it's an indication that there is upward pressure on the market and the stock market will tend to rise. On the other hand, if S&P futures are down, it's a sign that there is downward pressure on the market and it will likely trend lower. This rise or decline in the futures contract is usually calculated as a change from fair value. Fair value is the equilibrium price for a futures contract. This is equal to the spot price after taking into account compounded interest and dividends lost because the investor owns the futures contract rather than the physical stocks. This price is determined over the period of the futures contract. Arbitrageurs Part of the reason that the markets follow the trend of futures contracts is because of arbitrageurs. An arbitrageur is someone who simultaneously purchases and sells a security (or index) in order to profit from a differential in the price, usually on different exchanges or marketplaces. For S&P futures contracts here is what happens: Suppose the futures contract is trading above fair value (higher), before the market is about to open. An arbitrageur will sell (short) the S&P futures contract and go long (buy) on the underlying stocks within the S&P 500 index. Therefore, the stock prices will increase until the S&P 500 index reaches fair value with S&P futures contract. This sounds like a lot of work but really isn't because of program trading. Using software that monitors both a stock index and futures contracts on the index, traders can be notified when there is a larger than normal gap. This strategy is commonly referred to as index arbitrage. Popularity The main reason that S&P futures are so popular for detecting strength is because this contract trades 24 hours a day on financial exchanges around the world. It allows traders and brokers to gauge the futures level before the actual stock markets open for trading which gives a sense of where the market is likely trend at the start of trading.

Advancers to Decliners

The advance/decline line (A/D) is a technical analysis tool and is considered the best indicator of market movement as a whole. Stock indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) only tell us the strength of 30 stocks, whereas the A/D line provides much more insight. The formula is quite simple: it is the ratio between advancing stocks and declining ones. If the markets are up but there are more declining stocks than advancing ones it's usually a sign that the markets are losing their breadth or momentum. If the number of advancing issues is dominating the declining issues, the market is said to be healthy.

Unlike the S&P futures contract, this indicator is not necessarily short term. Looking at the A/D line (not just the advance decline ratio) shows us the cumulative trend of advancers to decliners over a particular period of time. Most of the time, the stock market does not turn around in an instant. Instead, the markets shift slowly, just as economic, business and market cycles would. This is why the general overall trend of the A/D line is important when determining the strength of the market. Even so, the advancers to decliners is a tool and not a crystal ball. Sudden market shocks that result from interest rate movements, war, or other drastic events can't be detected by the A/D.

Relative Strength Index and Arms

Relative Strength When talking about the strength of a stock or overall market, one great tool is the relative strength index (RSI) which is a comparison between the days a stock finishes up against the days it finishes down. It is a big tool in momentum trading. Depending on the type of investor, the RSI can be used to detect strength over a couple hours or over several months. Obviously, the longer trends are more valuable to long-term investors, whereas short-term trends in the RSI are popular with traders.

RSI = 100 - [100/(1 + RS)] where: RS = (Avg. of n-day up closes)/(Avg. of n-day down closes)

n= days (most analysts use 9 - 15 day RSI)

The RSI ranges from 0 to 100. A stock is considered overbought around the 70 level - a reason to consider selling. This number is not written in stone, in a bull market 80 is a better level because stocks often trade at higher valuations. Likewise, if the RSI approaches 30, a stock is considered oversold - a cause consider buying it. Again, make the adjustment to 20 in a bear market. A long-term RSI is more rolling and it fluctuates a lot less. Different sectors and industries have varying threshold levels when it comes to the RSI. Stocks of some industries will go as high as 75-80 before dropping back and others have a tough time breaking past 70. A good rule is to watch the RSI over the long term (one year or more) to determine at what level the RSI has traded in the past.

This chart was supplied by Barchart.com

Here we have an RSI chart for AT&T (T). The RSI is the green line and its scale is the numbers that go from 0 to 100. Notice that the RSI was approaching the 60-70 level and then the stock (blue line) sold off, both in December and January. Also notice around October when the RSI dropped to 25 the stock climbed up nearly 30% in just a couple of weeks. Arms Index (TRIN) The Arms Index is commonly referred to on financial television and short-term trading websites. Arms is a market performance indicator that varies from the A/D and RSI because instead of simply looking at the number of up and down ticks (or stocks) the Arms Index weighs each stock by the volume traded for each issue. A ratio of one means that the market is in balance. A ratio above one indicates that more volume is moving into declining stocks. A ratio below one indicates that more volume is moving into advancing stocks. Both the RSI and Arms are great little indicators that can help you detect the overall strength of the market. Most investors agree that the RSI and Arms is most effective in "backing up" or increasing confidence before making an investment decision.

Oil and Bonds

The price of oil and bonds as they relate to market strength is a wide topic, but these are two areas tend to have a large influence over the markets. In this section, we will address the basics of using the prices of these commodities to determine market strength.

Oil Energy is one commodity that affects every company in one way or another. For example, the price of wheat makes a greater impact on agriculture stocks, but oil influences everything from the cost of electricity and heating, to the cost of production and transportation. When the price of commodities, and particularly oil, is on the rise it signals that inflation is starting to become apparent. The day-to-day price fluctuations won't cause inflation fears, but the long-term trend will. If the price of oil has been steadily increasing, it could cause investors to be fearful that inflating energy prices will slow company profits. The price of oil has an opposite effect on those stocks directly influenced by the price of oil. Drilling, pipeline and retail distribution of energy stocks tend to have an extremely high correlation to the price of oil. Bond Prices Ten and 30 year bonds, along with interest rate futures are another indicator used by many investors to gauge the strength of the stock market. As you may already know, if bond prices are going up, then yields are decreasing. This decrease in yields causes investors to search for other areas in which to invest their money at a higher return - this usually means the stock market. On the other end of the equation, lower bond yields means that interest rates are low and companies will find it much cheaper to borrow money and finance expansion or growth. While bond and oil prices might not be as accurate and current as the S&P 500 futures, they are the useful when looking at the overall condition of the economy and, more importantly, at the trend of the stock market.

Conclusion

The usefulness of these indicators depends on what type of investor you are. Long-term investors shouldn't care too much if the S&P futures are up or down before the markets open, whereas traders and short-term investors find this type of information key. Regardless of what type of investor you are, knowing the overall trend of the market over several months is beneficial. It doesn't mean you should trade on the basis of this trend, but if you are informed you may be able to protect your assets. Here's a quick recap of what we've learned:

 The S&P 500 index contains many of the largest companies in the world, making it a good indicator of overall, short-term market direction

 If S&P futures are up, this indicates an upward trend in the stock market. If S&P futures are down, it's a sign that the market will trend lower.

 This rise or decline in a futures contract is usually calculated as a change from fair value, or the equilibrium price for a futures contract.

 An arbitrageur is someone who simultaneously purchases and sells a security (or index) in order to profit from a differential in the price - they are part of the reason that the market follows the trend in futures contracts.

 Index arbitrage is an investment strategy that attempts to profit from the differences between actual and theoretical futures prices of the same stock index. This is done by simultaneously buying (or selling) a stock index future while selling (or buying) the stocks in that index.

 The A/D line is a technical analysis tool. It is the ratio between advancing stocks and declining ones.

 The A/D line is not a short-term indicator; it shows us the cumulative trend of advancers to decliners over a particular period of time.

 Relative Strength Index (RSI) is a technical analysis indicator that compares the days that a stock finishes up against when it finishes lower.

 The RSI ranges from 0 to 100, but a stock is considered overbought if it reaches the 70 level, meaning that you should consider selling. When it is a true bull market, an RSI of 80 might be a better level since stocks often trade at higher valuations. Likewise, if the RSI approaches 30, it is a strong buying indicator (20 in a strong bear market).

 The Arms Index is a market performance indicator that weighs each stock by the volume traded for each issue. A ratio of one means the market is in balance. A ratio above one indicates that more volume is moving into declining stocks. A ratio below one indicates that more volume is moving into advancing stocks.

 Oil is an energy commodity; its price can affect many companies.

 The day to day price fluctuations in oil won't cause inflation fears, but if its price increases steadily it could cause investors to be fearful that inflating energy prices will slow company profits.

 The price of oil has an opposite effect on those stocks directly influenced by the price of oil such as drilling, pipeline and retail distribution of energy stocks.

 Bond prices can also be used to gauge the strength of the stock market.

 An increase in bond prices means a decrease in yields, which may cause more investors to move their money to the stock market for higher returns.

 Lower bond yields also tend to lead to lower interest rates, making it cheaper for companies to borrow money to finance growth.

Lifetime Payout Annuity

What Does Lifetime Payout Annuity Mean?

A type of insurance product that pays out a portion of the underlying portfolio of assets over the life of the investor. A lifetime payout annuity can provide fixed or variable payments. In a fixed payout scheme, the investor receives a fixed dollar amount for each payment, potentially with cost of living adjustments (COLA). Payouts under a variable payout scheme will fluctuate because payments are based on the value of the investments held in the annuity's portfolio.

Investors may choose a lifetime payout annuity to head off the risk of outliving the amount of money set aside for retirement. Basically, the guaranteed payments for life reduce a person's longevity risk. However, this payout scheme can cause problems for those wanting to leave estates to heirs. Payouts from a lifetime payout annuity typically end with the death of the policyholder. The policyholder can purchase adjustments which allow payments to continue to an estate or which allow for a guaranteed number of payments, but these can result in a different payout.

Earnings Manangement

Before diving into what earnings management is, it is important to have a solid understanding of what we mean when we refer to earnings. Earnings are the profits of a company. Investors and analysts look to earnings to determine the attractiveness of a particular stock. Companies with poor earnings prospects will typically have lower share prices than those with good prospects. Remember that a company's ability to generate profit in the future plays a very important role in determining a stock's price.

That said, earnings management is a strategy used by the management of a company to deliberately manipulate the company's earnings so that the figures match a pre-determined target. This practice is carried out for the purpose of income smoothing. Thus, rather than having years of exceptionally good or bad earnings, companies will try to keep the figures relatively stable by adding and removing cash from reserve accounts (known colloquially as "cookie jar" accounts).

Abusive earnings management is deemed by the Securities & Exchange Commission to be "a material and intentional misrepresentation of results". When income smoothing becomes excessive, the SEC may issue fines. Unfortunately, there's not much individual investors can do. Accounting laws for large corporations are extremely complex, which makes it very difficult for regular investors to pick up on accounting scandals before they happen.

Although the different methods used by managers to smooth earnings can be very complex and confusing, the important thing to remember is that the driving force behind managing earnings is to meet a pre-specified target (often an analyst's consensus on earnings). As the great investor Warren Buffett once said, "Managers that always promise to "make the numbers" will at some point be tempted to make up the numbers".

The Oracle of Omaha

What Does Oracle Of Omaha Mean?

A nickname for Warren Buffett, who is arguably one of the greatest investors of all time. He is called the "Oracle of Omaha" because his investment picks and comments on the market are very closely followed by the investment community, and he lives and works in Omaha, Nebraska.

Warren Buffett is one of the richest men in the world. He built his fortune using a simple yet powerful investment strategy. His investments are long-term positions, accomplished by the purchase of strong companies that are trading well below their intrinsic value. Some of his most well-known investments include Coca-Cola and Gillette.

What Does Berkshire Hathaway Mean?

A holding company for a multitude of businesses run by Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska and began as just a group of textile milling plants, but when Buffett became the controlling shareholder in the mid 1960s he began a progressive strategy of diverting cash flows from the core business into other investments.

Insurance subsidiaries tend to represent the largest pieces of Berkshire Hathaway, but the company manages hundreds of diverse businesses all over the world.

Because of Berkshire Hathaway's long history of operating success and keen stock market investments, the company has grown to be one of the largest in the world in terms of market capitalization. Berkshire stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange in two classes, A shares and B shares. The A shares are noted for their very high prices - in excess of $100,000 per share in 2007.

Early in his career Buffett came across the novel idea to use the "float" from his insurance subsidiaries to invest elsewhere, mainly into focused stock picks that would be held for the long term. Buffett has long eschewed a diversified stock portfolio in favor of a handful of trusted investments that would be overweighted in order to leverage the anticipated return. Over time, his investing prowess became so noted that Berkshire's annual shareholder meetings became a mecca for value investing proponents and the focus of intense media scrutiny.

Warren Buffett is widely considered to be one of the greatest investors of all time, but if you were to ask him who he thinks is the greatest investor he would probably mention one man: his teacher, Benjamin Graham. Graham was an investor and investing mentor who is generally considered to be the father of security analysis and value investing.

His ideas and methods on investing are well documented in his books, "Security Analysis" (1934), and "The Intelligent Investor" (1949), which are two of the most famous investing texts. These texts are often considered to be requisite reading material for any investor, but they aren't easy reads. Here, we'll condense Graham's main investing principles and give you a head start on understanding his winning philosophy.

Principle No.1: Always Invest with a Margin of Safety

Margin of safety is the principle of buying a security at a significant discount to its intrinsic value, which is thought to not only provide high-return opportunities, but also to minimize the downside risk of an investment. In simple terms, Graham's goal was to buy assets worth $1 for $0.50. He did this very, very well.

To Graham, these business assets may have been valuable because of their stable earning power or simply because of their liquid cash value. It wasn't uncommon, for example, for Graham to invest in stocks where the liquid assets on the balance sheet (net of all debt) were worth more than the total market cap of the company (also known as "net nets" to Graham followers). This means that Graham was effectively buying businesses for nothing. While he had a number of other strategies, this was the typical investment strategy for Graham.

This concept is very important for investors to note, as value investing can provide substantial profits once the market inevitably re-evaluates the stock and ups its price to fair value. It also provides protection on the downside if things don't work out as planned and the business falters. The safety net of buying an underlying business for much less than it is worth was the central theme of Graham's success. When chosen carefully, Graham found that a further decline in these undervalued stocks occurred infrequently.

While many of Graham's students succeeded using their own strategies, they all shared the main idea of the "margin of safety".

Principle No.2: Expect Volatility and Profit from It

Investing in stocks means dealing with volatility. Instead of running for the exits during times of market stress, the smart investor greets downturns as chances to find great investments. Graham illustrated this with the analogy of "Mr. Market", the imaginary business partner of each and every investor. Mr. Market offers investors a daily price quote at which he would either buy an investor out or sell his share of the business. Sometimes, he will be excited about the prospects for the business and quote a high price. At other times, he is depressed about the business's prospects and will quote a low price.

Because the stock market has these same emotions, the lesson here is that you shouldn't let Mr. Market's views dictate your own emotions, or worse, lead you in your investment decisions. Instead, you should form your own estimates of the business's value based on a sound and rational examination of the facts. Furthermore, you should only buy when the price offered makes sense and sell when the price becomes too high. Put another way, the market will fluctuate - sometimes wildly - but rather than fearing volatility, use it to your advantage to get bargains in the market or to sell out when your holdings become way overvalued.

Here are two strategies that Graham suggested to help mitigate the negative effects of market volatility:

Dollar-Cost Averaging

Dollar-cost averaging is achieved by buying equal dollar amounts of investments at regular intervals. It takes advantage of dips in the price and means that an investor doesn't have to be concerned about buying his or her entire position at the top of the market. Dollar-cost averaging is ideal for passive investors and alleviates them of the responsibility of choosing when and at what price to buy their positions.

Investing in Stocks and Bonds

Graham recommended distributing one's portfolio evenly between stocks and bonds as a way to preserve capital in market downturns while still achieving growth of capital through bond income. Remember, Graham's philosophy was, first and foremost, to preserve capital, and then to try to make it grow. He suggested having 25-75% of your investments in bonds, and varying this based on market conditions. This strategy had the added advantage of keeping investors from boredom, which leads to the temptation to participate in unprofitable trading (i.e. speculating).

Principle No.3: Know What Kind of Investor You Are

Graham advised that investors know their investment selves. To illustrate this, he made clear distinctions among various groups operating in the stock market.

Active Vs. Passive

Graham referred to active and passive investors as "enterprising investors" and "defensive investors".

You only have two real choices: The first is to make a serious commitment in time and energy to become a good investor who equates the quality and amount of hands-on research with the expected return. If this isn't your cup of tea, then be content to get a passive, and possibly lower, return but with much less time and work. Graham turned the academic notion of "risk = return" on its head. For him, "Work = Return". The more work you put into your investments, the higher your return should be.

If you have neither the time nor the inclination to do quality research on your investments, then investing in an index is a good alternative. Graham said that the defensive investor could get an average return by simply buying the 30 stocks of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in equal amounts. Both Graham and Buffett said that getting even an average return - for example, equaling the return of the S&P 500 - is more of an accomplishment than it might seem. The fallacy that many people buy into, according to Graham, is that if it's so easy to get an average return with little or no work (through indexing), then just a little more work should yield a slightly higher return. The reality is that most people who try this end up doing much worse than average.

In modern terms, the defensive investor would be an investor in index funds of both stocks and bonds. In essence, they own the entire market, benefiting from the areas that perform the best without trying to predict those areas ahead of time. In doing so, an investor is virtually guaranteed the market's return and avoids doing worse than average by just letting the stock market's overall results dictate long-term returns. According to Graham, beating the market is much easier said than done, and many investors still find they don't beat the market.

Speculator Vs. Investor

Not all people in the stock market are investors. Graham believed that it was critical for people to determine whether they were investors or speculators. The difference is simple: an investor looks at a stock as part of a business and the stockholder as the owner of the business, while the speculator views himself as playing with expensive pieces of paper, with no intrinsic value. For the speculator, value is only determined by what someone will pay for the asset. To paraphrase Graham, there is intelligent speculating as well as intelligent investing - just be sure you understand which you are good at.

Commentary

Graham's basic ideas are timeless and essential for long-term success. He bought into the notion of buying stocks based on the underlying value of a business and turned it into a science at a time when almost all investors viewed stocks as speculative. Graham served as the first great teacher of the investment discipline, as evidenced by those in his intellectual bloodline who developed their own. If you want to improve your investing skills, it doesn't hurt to learn from the best; Graham continues to prove his worth in his disciples, such as Warren Buffett, who have made a habit of beating the market.