There are many ironies in this world that most people take for granted. Here are some of the cases:
- A lot of people believe that iron and blood are the only tools to end violence;
- Weapon manufacturers and superpowers alike claim that they are essential to the sustainment of peace;
- People heralded the advancements of science and technology where mass production of products as blood and palm oil from atoms is impossible;
- Money raised for purchasing vaccines that allow the drug manufacturers to post fat profit;
- We all agree that knowledge is free but books are selling at correspondingly high prices, which, to some extent, is due to the royalties;
- Rules established to enhance the status of the privileged ones which helps to degrade their survivability;
- and etc.
Even the field of securities operations have a lot of ironies. (Please refer to The Intelligent Investor.) It is undeniable that my common sense have somewhat been distorted by these ‘established norms.’ There are something I would like to say about the book. I do not mean that Ben Graham wrote an irony; rather, it was the publisher whose label it attached to the book make it one.
I am quite disappointed that the publisher of The Intelligent Investor does not recognize properly the distinction between the two terms, investment and speculation. There are many people who do not recognize the distinction as well. Otherwise, we would not talk of term as ‘value investing,’ for investing is an operation which upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Since this is the definition of investment, would there be different types of investment operations, other than speculations?
I am even more disappointed by the fact that many people refer to Ben as ‘father of value investing.’ I don’t know what Ben is thinking right now…
This implies a fact that many of the advices given by ‘authoritative sources’ cannot be taken as lessons on investment. Since they are not able to differentiate between investment and speculation, there must somehow be a misunderstanding in their teachings, which I feel, will distort my interpretation on investment. This is certainly not a good thing to me.
It is quite disturbing that I discovered this fact so late. I am not sure whether I am able to intellectually survive in this nonsensical world. Hopefully, by constantly referring to The Intelligent Investor, I will make it through…
A final point: I am not sure as whether there are people who demand no royalty from his publication. (Certainly, there are; I know some of them.) Many people suggested to me that I should impose a nominal charge for services such as assembling PCs and trouble-shooting. However, those people also suggested that investing is something immoral and unethical. I largely ignored these suggestions but at the same time was thinking of the rationales behind these suggestions. Can anyone help me figure out?
