Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2020
3/7/2020
This book concerns a subject which is quantitative. Accordingly, the discussion should be in numerical terms. Vague terms have no place in a book of this nature. But, The Intelligent Investor is replete with vague terms which make the presentation unintelligible. I can appreciate why journalists resort to vague terms and rhetoric routinely, they do not know that about which they are writing, so they fudge with vague terms. They want to sensationalize, so they use vague terms to communicate that something is larger or smaller than it really is. For example, when a quantity is $15.35, a journalist will write “more than $15.” But why resort to unintelligible terms in a book about investing in the stock market. Here are examples:
“more than” - 27, 254, 255, 403; “more than fivefold,” page 27; what does that mean? sixfold? tenfold; “a host of” - as in “a host of public utilities,” page 27; what does that mean?
“almost” - as in “almost certain to be true,” page 28; a proposition is either either true or false, there is no middle ground; “many” - as in “banks of many states”, page 29, 120, 120, 294; many just means more than one; “likely” - this word means absolutely nothing, yet Graham uses it repeatedly, page 29, 253; “nearly,” page 34, 37, 191, 293, 316, 318, 319, 325; means nothing
“about” - page 75, as in about 11%; 10% is about 11%, as is 11.5%, 15%, 30%; which is it? See also page 169, 317, 318;“unlikely,” page 245, this words means the same as likely, i.e., it means nothing; “practically,” page 34; “considerable” and “fair” number, page 34 - I know what a number is, but what is a considerable number? fair number? “up to” to indicate a quantity as in “up to 34 million, page 83, it means 0 to 34, take your pick; “roughly” page 83, 85, 325 has no significance; “more than” as in “more than 18%;” it could mean 20%, 30%, 70%; see also page 149, 150, 162, 323 325; “almost certain” page 119, has no meaning, something is either certain or not, no middle ground; “limited,” as in limited means, page 120; no meaning; “handful” as in handful of institutional traders, page 152; I know what is a handful of corn, sand, etc., but how do you hold people in one hand? See also page 274 “handful of people,” 307; “large,” page 166; what does that mean? also page 319; “close to,” page 169, what does that mean?
“somewhere in the neighborhood of the aggregate current value,” page 169, totally unintelligible
“significant,” as in significant losses, page 169; means nothing; “appreciable gains,” page 169, 191, means nothing; “quite large,” page 172; “a number of,” page 176, 290; “the greater number of defensive investors,” page 176; “several,” page 188, as in “a period of several years;” how many is several? “few,” page 191, 220, 293, 322, has no meaning; “hundreds,” page 322
“small,” page 317, “more or less,” page 290, “one of the most,” page 294, anything is one of the most, as anything is one of the best, or one of the longest; the term “one of the” means nothing unless a ranking is stated as in “one of the top three.”
Aside from vague terms, this book does not inform a person on the different instrument for investing and the mechanisms of the securities exchange markets like the NYSE and the NASDAQ. For that, I recommend “How to Buy Stocks” by Louis Engel.
