Comments on: The Intelligent Investor: Stock Selection for the Defensive Investor

By: jhl

jhl — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:16:46 +0000

Warren B said, “Be greedy when others are wary, be wary when others are greedy.” More recently, he says to get into equities ASAP b/c it’s the least worst option in an inflationary environment.

The government will continue printing money until the USD becomes so weak that the US worker can compete with China & India…

Get ready to learn Mandarin & Hindi b/c we’ll be answering THEIR customer service calls soon.

By: Fred

Fred — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:17:35 +0000

An even simpler and lazier “strategy”:
Call Madoff, wire him all your money.
That’s it, you’re done; back to the sofa, you will never be bothered with this money again!

By: VC

VC — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:19:43 +0000

I agree with Curt, this is a severe recession and people have lost faith in stocks. Wall Street is shaken up. The job situation is only getting worse, unemployment is going to rise so the majority companies will not be increasing earnings anytime soon. Instead of picking stocks that are “defensive” and will not go down, pick stocks that play off of unemployment. One example is companies who do online colleges like Apollo Group or American Public Education Inc. These stocks have actually been growing because as people are losing their job, they are turning to online to colleges to improve their education.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:02:46 +0000

Erica,
“Adequate size” = market cap. Set the min to $1 or $10 bil
“sufficiently strong financial condition” = debt:equity (you need to use the java screener for this)
“earnings stability” = You have to do this on your own, but just write down the earnings in a spreadsheet for 10 years or whatever
“dividend record” ditto
earnings growth is an option. remember, 33% over 10 years is about 3% annualized (and screeners used annualized numbers)
etc

By: Saver Queen

Saver Queen — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:44:36 +0000

Zweig’s main point sounds a lot like the “couch potato” investing strategy encouraged by Money Sense Magazine.

By: The Personal Finance Playbook

The Personal Finance Playbook — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:09:19 +0000

@ Curt. I disagree. Graham’s strategies are not tailored for normal conditions. If you read the book, “defensive strategies” are strategies that will withstand depression-like time periods. They are strategies that focus on capital preservation, even in extreme times.

By: Erica Douglass

Erica Douglass — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:15:42 +0000

Trent, I would really appreciate it if you went through exactly how you used the Yahoo stock screener and put these variables in. It’s a bit confusing when you first run it and are faced with a blank screen!

-Erica

By: Curt

Curt — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:30:23 +0000

These are great strategies under normal conditions, but we don’t have normal conditions. We have a massive decline in the entire economy. Stocks are going to continue to sell off until we get to the bottom of all the loses and the fed stops the bailout money. Then, we will be able to see when stocks are actually worth.