[thisisit]

I have read both The Intelligent Investor or Security Analysis and I can't say there is any value - no pun intended - in reading both these books. Most of these methods are arcane. It just seems that people in value investing circles like to hype these book up just because Buffett got his start by reading these books. Under Munger things have turned -

> A great business at a fair price is superior to a fair business at a great price.

Philip Fisher and Peter Lynch's books are much better read.

That said, as the article says in a bull market when markets are going up it is difficult to know if your value picks are actually great. In bear markets no one wants to touch undervalued companies.

[assemblyman]

I think a lot of this depends on where you started. I don't disagree that the details of the methods don't apply especially to technology stocks. On the other hand, one learns a principled way of looking at companies. It's easy, if one hasn't paid attention to anything in the financial world, to think of stocks as abstract numbers that "will go up" or "go down" or "has good prospects because everyone is talking about it". Any of these books are a good antidote to that because they teach a framework to reason about companies.

I also do find it strange that this idea gets so much push back. For people who don't want to think about investing, just put your savings in index funds (and/or cash equivalents depending on your plans). For people who are curious about these aspects, read some of the books and invest with small amounts and learn. Maybe you won't consistently beat SP500 and maybe you will. After all, it's not like all active investors shut their hedge funds down and started investing in SP500. The usual argument is that the funds have much more resources but it's actually easier to invest with smaller amounts than millions or billions of dollars.