• The Intelligent Investor

  • The Classic Best Seller on Value Investing
  • By: Benjamin Graham
  • Narrated by: Bill McGowan
  • Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (1,156 ratings)

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The Intelligent Investor  By  cover art

The Intelligent Investor

By: Benjamin Graham
Narrated by: Bill McGowan
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Publisher's summary

The classic best seller by Benjamin Graham, perhaps the greatest investment advisor of the 20th century, The Intelligent Investor has taught and inspired hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Since its original publication in 1949, Benjamin Graham's book has remained the most respected guide to investing, due to his timeless philosophy of "value investing", which helps protect investors against areas of (possible) substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies which they will be comfortable with down the road.

Among this audiobook's special features are the use of numerous comparisons of pairs of common stocks to bring out their elements of strength and weakness and the construction of investment portfolios designed to meet specific requirements of quality and price attractiveness.

©1973, 1996, 2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. (P)1973, 1996, 2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"By far the best book on investing ever written." (Warren E. Buffett)

What listeners say about The Intelligent Investor

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

The Thumbnail sketch of the book...

They're not kidding when they call this the "abridged version of The Intelligent Investor! How do you take a 700 page book and boil it down to under 3 hours and maintain much of the content? This is good if you want the general idea of what Graham is talking about, but if you're looking for nuts and bolts... I'd look elsewhere.

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30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Investment say what?

I am an average guy, and this book seems to be for the average investor. It speaks about that topic of the "average investor" a lot, and yet it doesn't speak on our level. It teaches you nothing of what to do, and only tells you what not to do. Basically tells me to invest my money somewhere different than the stock market.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

very useful, unfortunately abridged

This book is extremely valuable for any investor. It gives you the plateform to become a true investor rather than speculator. But, unfortunately it is not available as unabridged.If you get unabridged than you are very lucky and go ahead beore spending your hard earned money unintelligently

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Condensed classic

The Intelligent Investor is a mainstay of the finance literature. Warren Buffett -- one of the world's richest men and an acolyte of Graham -- is said to have read this book dozens of times until he could recite much of the book.

The original text edition is hundreds of pages long. The audiobook is just over two hours. How can a very fat book then lose so much weight in the audio version and remain healthy? I personally own and have read from cover to cover the full book. Comparing the full text with this audiobook, there is no doubt the abridgment takes away a lot of the flavor and substance. Many of Graham's lessons are lost. Plus, in my text edition every chapter has an additional commentary from Jason Zweig (a Graham disciple and author of "The Intelligent Investor" column in the Wall Street Journal). This edition does not have any commentary and only has the most basic of Graham's lessons.

Despite the drawbacks I would recommend this audiobook. As far as I know this is the best audio version of Graham's work. The audio includes Graham's most enduring lessons like the investor vs. speculator distinction, 'Mr. Market' metaphor, defensive vs. aggressive investors, and the basics of his enduring investing philosophy.

I also find this audio convenient for reference. Due to its brevity an intelligent investor can quickly review Graham's investing basics during a longer car ride and regain some comfort during bear markets (I recently re-listened to this. For reference: this review is being written 8/7/11). You cannot beat Graham for his erudition, clear writing style, and great recommendations. For those of you who have not yet read this book you will find that Graham's words are like mothers milk for your net-worth.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Investing vs. Speculation

This is a philosophy of investing money in stocks and bonds. It examines the behavior of the market since the depression and illustrates the futility of trying to time the market or outsmart people who spent 100 hours a week doing this for a living. Hedge fund managers work from 4AM to 8PM every day chasing investments. Can you hope to beat them by spending 30 minutes a day? Absolutely not! You have to take a different tact than they do. Graham's value investing is one such tact.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Great book, awful abridged version

What would have made The Intelligent Investor better?

I shouldn't be so short. I read the original printed version and there is so much more in it! They basically read a summary of the book and sold it as an abridged version. Total waste of a credit.

What could Benjamin Graham have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Nothing. The original book is awesome.

Would you be willing to try another one of Bill McGowan’s performances?

Yes. The narration was very good.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not this version

Any additional comments?

I didn't know that an abridged version could be so much shorter then the original one.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

redundant

Very repetitive and a bit "preachy." Could have been summarized in about 3 minutes. I would not recommend investing 3 hours of your time.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Misleading.

this is only a fraction of the original book and only a few chapters. waste of money or credit.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Sad and a bit dated

the most recent reference is from the 70's. It does give a enjoyable history of Stock, Prefered Stk and Bonds but it is very negative on purpose to ward off novice investors with plans on making a fortune in the stock market.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

for pro's

its great! but short. 100% useful if you're advanced in stock market already. like it

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2 people found this helpful