Benjamin Graham

Benjamin Graham brought intellectual rigor to a market long driven by speculation. By separating investing from gambling and turning security analysis into a discipline, he earned the title 'father of value investing.'

Born Benjamin Grossbaum in London in 1894, he emigrated to New York as a child. His father died when he was nine; his mother lost further savings in margin trading. That early encounter with ruin planted the seeds of his lifelong focus on downside protection. He attended Columbia on a scholarship, graduating at 20 with offers to teach math, philosophy, and English — yet chose Wall Street.

The 1929 crash nearly destroyed his partnership, forging the core of his theory: short-term the market is a voting machine; long-term it is a weighing machine. In 1934 he and David Dodd published Security Analysis, teaching investors to compare intrinsic value with market price.

His 1949 Intelligent Investor repackaged those ideas for general readers. The Mr. Market parable — an emotional partner who offers wildly varying prices daily — taught investors to exploit mood swings, not follow them. The margin-of-safety principle demanded buying only well below intrinsic value.

At Columbia Business School, Graham trained an exceptional generation. Warren Buffett, who earned the only A+ in his class, called Graham the second most influential person in his life. Fellow alumni Kahn, Schloss, and Ruane all beat the market long-term, providing a practical refutation of efficient-market theory.

In later years Graham championed index funds, anticipating the passive revolution Bogle would launch. He died in 1976 at 82. His principles — buy below value, master your emotions, insist on a margin of safety — remain the bedrock of sound investing.