Excellent book.
Although written a long time ago, applies to the investment busy today.

I had always intended to read Security Analysis, but due to the size of the book (over 700 pages), I had never gotten around to doing it until now. It was well worth the read. True, some of the examples are dated, like the emphasis on railroad securities and some old accounting rules, but the underlying principles still apply today.

The book emphasizes concepts, methods, standards, principles and logical reasoning, so it works in the current environment, just as it did when Graham and Dodd wrote it in 1934.

2008 was a year of financial and real estate crises which lead to many people seeing huge declines in their 401(k) plans, causing some to note that the days of "buy and hold" are over now. Graham and Dodd commented on this long ago, noting that "the old idea of 'permanent investments,' exempt from change and free from care, is no doubt permanently gone." They believed in long-term investments, not trading, but still said an investor has to keep an eye on their holdings and can't just buy them and forget about them. This advice still holds true today.

They also offer valuable advice on issues as diverse as market timing, intrinsic value, market behavior, analyzing a business, using quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze securities, how investment differs from speculation, key issues for fixed investments vs common stocks, the margin-of-safety principle, the importance of the balance sheet as well as the income statement in analyzing companies, the importance of comparing price to value, and many other concepts that would benefit investors of today.

I would highly recommend this book to serious investors, especially value investors who would benefit from receiving guidance from the men who literally wrote the book on value investing.

I bought this book to read what Ben Graham and David L Dodd thought. Not for the comments from other investors. It could be better not to provide comments by others and have the original chapters. Every time I read the book, I have to keep my laptop open to refer to notes and the deleted chapters.

To anyone who is reading this, Security Analysis is one of the greatest works ever written. In my opinion, you don't have time NOT to read it.

Of course, you shouldn't take every single idea written in any book, even the best, as the absolute truth. You should read Philip Fisher, William Nickerson, Adam Smith, John Burr Williams, John Bogle, Douglas Andrew, and so on, and take all the gems from each book, no matter how small (or how many), and piece together your own method of creating wealth. Don't be a sheep, be a sheperd, and put together your own flock.

That being said, read Security Analysis, and read it well. Highlight important points, draw arrows, create charts and diagrams representing key points.

Master this material.

You owe it to yourself. If you want to be an expert investor, you will put in this amount of effort in every book you read, especially the greatest works, like Security Analysis. You won't get rich by half-assing. This book is a priceless gem, and, although it may take several months of reading and research to understand its concepts, it will be well worth your while.

I am a Chinese, PhD in Statistics. Through out my education in the past 20 years(5 years in US, 15 years in China), like many others who mainly focus on Mathematics, Science and Technology, I may have some bias views(skepticism) on Business, Finance, Economic, and Social science. After I read this book, such bias disappear. Value investing, as part of business and finance, rewards my highest respect.

This book is a excellent proof or illustration of human intelligence. Intelligence is defined as "the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings--"catching on", "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do. " I want to address that this book is not easy to read, but if you can follow,you will gradually have a strong brain thinking power, and you will have a better understanding of "Intelligence", "Language".

Another thing I found in the book is that, English as a language, is superior to Chinese in terms of defining, detail describing, and organizing a subject, and the following analyzing, reasoning, and summarizing. I never seen a Chinese book written in such a clear way, in that analysis and conclusions are strongly supported by facts and logical reasoning in a beautiful usage of language. Since language is a carrier of culture, the superiority may manifest itself in many ways in society, and the difference will become less and less due to the development of internet, globalization, and policies of English education in China.

So how to profit from this book? At first you will understand the difference between investment and speculation. For investment, if you do it at the right time and the right way, your money will grow (faster) as the wealth of a nation growing. For speculation, after you finish this book, I recommend you read books written by G. Soros and P.A. Fisher, then come to the postscript of "Intelligent Investor", you will see a word "fortune", describing the unbalanced success of the author in his life, for which he made half profits in two stocks of hundreds holdings. Well, I have to say, that it is not a "fortune", it is one of the right attitudes for speculation, which is inevitable in the process of investment.