Book · 1934
Security Analysis
by Benjamin Graham
In 1934, Benjamin Graham wrote hundreds of pages on how to value a stock properly, and by the end of his life he told people not to bother with most of it.
What does Reddit think of Security Analysis?
Security Analysis shows up here more as an artifact people cite than a book people finish. The ↑316 comment leads with the irony: Graham himself, by the end of his life, said he was 'no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis' for finding value, walking back the method the book spends hundreds of pages building. The ↑47 comment extracts the actual mechanics anyone still uses, the intrinsic-value formula, without engaging the surrounding text. The ↑46 comment quotes Graham's 1934 definition of speculation versus investment directly, the one line that seems to survive intact. Most telling is the ↑49 comment: someone 70 percent through The Intelligent Investor, partway into Margin of Safety, having only 'leafed through' this one, concludes index funds are a better use of their time regardless. r/investing carries nearly all of the total mentions here; r/Bogleheads and r/financialindependence barely register. None of the eight excerpts carry a sentiment score.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · A foundational value-investing text people quote from more than they read cover to cover
- · Graham's own later disavowal of the 'elaborate techniques' the book teaches
- · The intrinsic-value formula extracted and reused independent of the surrounding chapters
- · A book that loses out to Buffett's more approachable canon
Common praise
- + The ↑46 comment quotes Graham's 1934 definition of investment versus speculation directly, and it's still doing work nearly a century later.
- + The ↑47 comment pulls the intrinsic-value formula out and uses it as a standalone tool, independent of the book's density.
- + The ↑316 comment treats Graham's own later reversal as worth knowing, which at least means people are engaging with his actual biography, not just the title.
Common criticism
- − The ↑49 comment only 'leafed through' it, compared to finishing The Intelligent Investor and starting Margin of Safety, and still reached a verdict: index funds are a better use of time.
- − Graham himself undercuts the book in the ↑316 quote, saying he no longer advocated the 'elaborate techniques' it teaches for finding value.
- − At just over 20 total mentions over seven years, it's the least-discussed of the classic value-investing texts referenced in these threads, propped up mostly by r/investing alone.
Who it's for
Pull the intrinsic-value formula and the investment-versus-speculation definition if that's what you actually need, the way the ↑47 and ↑46 comments do, and you can skip the surrounding chapters without much guilt. If you're choosing between this, The Intelligent Investor, and Margin of Safety with limited time, the ↑49 comment already ran that experiment and landed on index funds instead of finishing any of them. Graham's own later view, quoted in the ↑316 comment, gives you permission to treat the book as a historical document rather than an active playbook. Read it if you want the primary source. Extract the formula if you just want the tool.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Security Analysis?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“This. He was talking about **Security Analysis** from 1936. Graham himself died in 1976. Also we should know about the context of Graham's words and emphasize what "useless" is. >*“I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunitie…
“>Hopefully this wasn’t too boring a post It could be more concise. I could write reams of stuff about compounded growth and value investing, but I don't because I know my audience. Condense this and give it some structure, immediately summarize your thesis. I'll give you perhaps the greatest exa…
“Buffett himself has said that the sheer amount of capital he has to deploy often puts him at a disadvantage these days because it's hard to move the needle on Berkshire's portfolio short of buying all or very large chunks of large companies. Not to mention that today's markets are much more efficie…
“I'm 70% through Intelligent Investor, started Margin of Safety, and have leafed through Security Analysis by Graham/Dodd, and from what I've read and how much time I wasted looking at $GME stuff a couple weeks ago, I think it's a better use of my time to stick to index funds and use my time doing ot…
“>So, he was managing a big portfolio and getting his part from profits? but on his own name or for the firm? How one would be able to do that know? You can get a lot of information about the market at the time from Buffett's biography The Snowball. It's a long book but it's in depth. As far as mod…
“Was curious about this since I had never heard of Ben Graham's intrinsic value formula. For those in the same boat as me, it is: ``` V = EPS * (8.5 + 2g) * 4.4 / Y ``` with ``` EPS = the company’s last 12-month earnings per share 8.5 = P/E base for a no-growth company g = reasonab…
““An investment operation is one which, on thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and a satisfactory return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.” - Benjamin Graham, Security Analysis (1934)
“Don’t follow anyone. Read some books instead. Here’s a list to get him started: **Behavioral/Psychology** - Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini - Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind by Guy Clayton - What it Takes: Seven Secrets of Success from the World's Greatest Professional Firms by…
“I**f you want to buy individual stocks, you should read:** The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham Security Analysis, by Graham and Dodd **If you want to learn why you shouldn't buy individual stocks, you should read:** A Random Walk Down Wall Street, by Burton G Malkiel Common Sense on M…
“It’s been on a plateau? Um no. The price of the stock hasn’t moved upward significantly for 3 months now and that’s a plateau? How about the fact that their revenue was up 21% with the lowest P/E of all of the tech giants this year does that sound like a plateau to you? I think it’d be in your best …
“Ben Graham divided humans fundamentally on one essential metric: professional investors and amateur investors. Professional investors can justify a concentrated bet. Amateur investors can’t justify a concentrated bet. Basically if you don’t spend 8+ hours a day working on security analysis, then y…
“Read. A ton. Also been a business finance Intrested engineering student. Learn to love reading. Then read it all. The 3 must reads, in my own opinion. They contrast each other very well, giving you a great unbiased foundation to build upon. Top 3: Mindset by Carol S. Dweck (A non-finance must re…
“I kindly reject the premise that an average investor cannot do DD, and that one needs an accounting degree. There is a ton of information that will allow you to educate yourself on valuating a company and its stock. *Websites* Investopedia.com Nerdwallet.com investor.vanguard.com/investing/how-…
“**In selecting the common stock portfolio, do you advise careful study of and selectivity among different issues?** _In general, no. I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities. This was a rewarding activity, say, 40 y…
“You couldn't get a better answer than directly from the horse' mouth, Graham, in 1976: "I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities. This was a rewarding activity, say, 40 years ago, when our textbook 'Graham and Dodd' was fi…
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What else does r/investing read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
Guides featuring Security Analysis
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
Security Analysis — frequently asked
Is Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham still worth reading in 2026?+
Debatable, per the data itself. The ↑316 comment notes that Graham later said he was 'no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis' for finding value, undercutting the book's own method. The ↑49 comment only leafed through it before concluding index funds were a better use of time. Nobody in the top-upvoted sample argues for reading it cover to cover.
What's the most useful idea in Security Analysis?+
The intrinsic-value formula, per the ↑47 comment: V = EPS x (8.5 + 2g) x 4.4 / Y, extracted and used on its own rather than in the context of the surrounding chapters. The ↑46 comment separately preserves Graham's definition distinguishing investment from speculation, word for word from the 1934 text. Both get cited as standalone tools, not as reasons to read the whole book.
Did Benjamin Graham still believe in Security Analysis's methods later in life?+
Not entirely, according to the ↑316 comment, which quotes Graham saying he was 'no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities.' That's Graham himself, not a critic, walking back the core method the book teaches, and it's the most-upvoted take on the book in this dataset.
Should I read Security Analysis or The Intelligent Investor first?+
The data leans toward Intelligent Investor first, if at all: the ↑49 comment describes being 70 percent through Intelligent Investor and only starting Margin of Safety before merely leafing through Security Analysis, then deciding indexing made more sense than finishing any of them. That's not a ringing endorsement for prioritizing this one.