RWH050: THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

W/ JASON ZWEIG

19 October 2024

In today’s episode, William Green chats with Jason Zweig about his updated & revised edition of Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor, which Warren Buffett describes as “by far the best book on investing ever written.” Jason, who also writes the Wall Street Journal’s Intelligent Investor column, explains why Graham’s classic book still holds vitally important lessons for today’s investors. He also shares what he’s learned from interviewing Buffett & Charlie Munger.

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

  • How Jason Zweig tackled the “honor & burden” of revising The Intelligent Investor.
  • How Ben Graham’s 4 core principles can help you to invest intelligently.
  • What a sudden plunge in Japanese stocks shows about the craziness of markets.
  • What Jason views as the most important paragraph ever written about investing.
  • How Warren Buffett & Bill Miller profit from being “inversely” emotional.
  • How regular investors can win by tuning out Wall Street’s propaganda. 
  • Why you must decide if you’re an “enterprising” or “defensive” investor.
  • Why maintaining a “margin of safety” matters more than anything.
  • Why Jason believes index funds should form the base of your portfolio.
  • Why it’s so hard to pick the tiny minority of “superstocks.”
  • What dooms the vast majority of fund managers to underperform.
  • How Graham’s most successful investment violated his own principles.
  • What life lessons Jason learned from Graham, Buffett, & Charlie Munger.

TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: The transcript that follows has been generated using artificial intelligence. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but minor errors and slightly off timestamps may be present due to platform differences.

[00:00:03] William Green: Hi there, it’s great to be back with you on the Richer Wiser Happier podcast. Our guest today is Jason Zweig, an eminent author and financial journalist who writes the Intelligent Investor column in the Wall Street Journal. I’ve been friends with Jason for almost 30 years and regard him as one of the wisest and most thoughtful experts on how to build long term wealth in the stock market.

[00:00:23] William Green: Equally important, he’s also a brilliant observer of the many ways in which investors land themselves in trouble, either because they deceive themselves, or because they’re deceived by what he describes as Wall Street’s propaganda. So if you want to understand what works and doesn’t work in investing, I don’t think there’s anybody better to learn from.

[00:00:42] William Green: In today’s conversation, we focus in depth on one of the landmark achievements of Jason’s career. He’s about to release a 75th anniversary edition of Benjamin Graham’s masterpiece, The Intelligent Investor. As I’m sure Graham’s most famous student and disciple was Warren Buffett, who first read The Intelligent Investor in 1950, when he was 19 years old.

[00:01:04] William Green: Buffett concluded then that it was by far the best book about investing ever written, and he’s never changed his mind. Jason first revised and updated The Intelligent Investor back in 2003. Now, two decades later, he’s created this new and improved edition. Which features his own extensive commentary on each chapter.

[00:01:23] William Green: I recently read a pre-publication copy and was blown away by his ability to breathe new life into Graham’s book, making it extremely relevant to today’s investors. It’s really a brilliant achievement. In this episode, Jason talks about the most important principles you need to learn from Graham in order to navigate the wild unpredictability of the stock market and the crazy unpredictability of life.

[00:01:48] William Green: He explains why individual investors have powerful advantages over professional investors. But only if they have the discipline and independence of mind to play their own long, patient, low cost game. That requires us to resist the kind of hyperactive, get rich quick game that Wall Street would typically prefer us to play, since it’s more profitable for Wall Street, even though it’s ultimately pretty much doomed to fail.

[00:02:13] William Green: We also discuss the rewards and challenges of identifying the next great super stocks that can turbocharge your returns. We talk about why it’s so hard, even for talented and honorable fund managers, to beat the market over the long run. We talk about the qualities that enable stars like Buffett and Bill Miller to defy the odds and outperform.

[00:02:33] William Green: Finally, Jason shares some of the most valuable life lessons he’s learned from three legends Ben Graham, Warren Buffett, and Charlie Munger. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Thanks so much for joining us.

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