The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book On Value part 24. The purpose of this book is to supply, in a form suitable for laymen, guidance in the adoption and execution of an investment policy. Comparatively little will be said here about the technique of analyzing securities; attention will be paid chiefly to investment principles and investors’ attitudes. We shall, however, provide a number of condensed comparisons of specific securities - chiefly in pairs appearing side by side in the New York Stock Exchange list in order to bring home in concrete fashion the important elements involved in specific choices of common stocks | FIGURE 8-1 From Stinkers to Stars Company Business Total Return Final value of 1 000 invested 1 1 1999 1999 2000 2001 2002 Angelica industrial uniforms 1 328 Ball Corp. metal plastic packaging 2 359 Checkers Drive-In Restaurants fast food 1 517 Family Dollar Stores discount retailer 1 476 International Game Technology gambling equipment 3 127 J B Hunt Transportation trucking 1 294 Jos. A. Bank Clothiers apparel 2 665 Lockheed Martin defense aerospace 1 453 Pier 1 Imports home furnishings 2 059 UST Inc. snuff tobacco 1 241 Wilshire Internet Index 315 Wilshire 5000 index total stock market 778 Sources Aronson Johnson Ortiz . Commentary on Chapter 8 217 start-up firms went up an astonishing in 1999. Meanwhile Berkshire Hathaway-the holding company through which Graham s greatest disciple Warren Buffett owns such Old Economy stalwarts as CocaCola Gillette and the Washington Post by .4 But then as it so often does the market had a sudden mood swing. Figure 8-1 offers a sampling of how the stinkers of 1999 became the stars of 2000 through 2002. As for those two holding companies CMGI went on to lose 96 in 2000 another in 2001 and still more in 2002-a cumulative loss of . Berkshire Hathaway went up in 2000 and in 2001 then had a slight loss in 2002-a cumulative gain of 30 . CAN YOU BEAT THE PROS AT THEIR OWN GAME One of Graham s most powerful insights is this The investor who permits himself to be stampeded or unduly worried by unjustified market declines in his holdings is perversely transforming his basic advantage into a basic disadvantage. What does Graham mean by those words basic advantage He means that the intelligent individual investor has the
