Notes from Graham's value investing classes

[oddballstocks]

I was reading the following thread http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=77840&mrr=1310124512 and someone posted an email from Jason Zweig mentioning that there are copies of student notes from Ben Graham's value investing classes in the 30s floating around.

 

I was wondering has anyone seen any of these?  This is the first I'd heard of them, I'm guessing they're probably not digital, maybe in a book form?

[king888]

Here is the PDF format for download

 

http://www.jasonzweig.com/documents/BG_speech_SF1963.pdf

[A_Hamilton]

http://mattpauls.com/info/2010/05/benjamin-graham-journal-scans/

 

126 pages of pure Ben Graham

[king888]

Here is the note from Marshall Delano,  who met Graham one year before he died .

 

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.invest.stocks/browse_thread/thread/e7c72118b26b5580/c5cabe7a80208f9c?qc

[Kraven]

None of these are notes from the 1930s.  I have read pretty much everything I can find on Graham and I have never seen class notes from the 1930s.  Would love to get my hands on them if they exist.  There are 2 things I can think of.  One, the 1934 1st edition of Security Analysis was actually put together from notes taken by Dodd in Graham's lectures.  Perhaps those notes survived and are in someone's files.  I recall that when he died, Dodd's daughter gave Buffett his copy of the 1934 edition which was heavily marked up for updating.  The other thing I can think of is that there are a series of Graham's lectures which were transcribed verbatim from a series given at the NY Institute of Finance between 1946-1947.

 

I quickly read through the thread on the Boglehead's board you linked to.  Very amusing.  A debate on whether or not Graham actually said that in the short run the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it's a weighing machine.  A few people looked (quickly) at Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor and determined he never said those words.  Someone then reached at to the highest authority, Jason Zweig (who did something unspeakable in his "updating" of The Intelligent Investor) and Zweig determined he also didn't say it.  Zweig then reached out to Buffett who ultimately says if Graham didn't write it, he certainly said it around the office, in classes, etc.  Board members then determined that it isn't Graham's view, but actually Buffett's (!) and that Graham thinks the market IS a voting machine, and Graham and Buffett have 2 different views.  LOL

 

This is one of those quotes that has simply been misquoted along the way.  Graham didn't say it exactly, but it IS what he intended and I'm sure he did say it the way Buffett remembers it.  If people could only crack open the book (Security Analysis), they would see that in the context of how it was written, it was meant to say what Buffett says it says.  Graham makes 2 points.  One is that the market price of securities is frequently out of line with the true value and, two, there is an inherent tendency for it to correct.  He goes on to say that while the 2nd point is true in theory, it often doesn't work out that way and even when it does it can take a very long time.    The point is that in the short term people are emotional and don't pay attention to the fundamentals (i.e. it is a voting machine), but that in the long run, in theory and often enough in practice that it's a true statement, essentially enough people come to their senses and "vote" properly based on the underlying value (i.e. a weighing machine).

[oddballstocks]

Thanks for the links everyone, I'd seen some of them and others were new, so some good reading material.

 

Kraven hits the nail on the head though none of the notes are from the 30s.  My guess is that someone has a hard copy of them floating in an archive that Zweig has either seen or heard about.  It would be great if something like that was available online, but even if they only existed at a university library that would be worthwhile as well.

 

I also like on that thread how that poster asked a question and it ended up being answered by Buffett himself.  The internet is a crazy place sometimes...

[twacowfca]

Thanks for the links everyone, I'd seen some of them and others were new, so some good reading material.

 

Kraven hits the nail on the head though none of the notes are from the 30s.  My guess is that someone has a hard copy of them floating in an archive that Zweig has either seen or heard about.  It would be great if something like that was available online, but even if they only existed at a university library that would be worthwhile as well.

 

I also like on that thread how that poster asked a question and it ended up being answered by Buffett himself.  The internet is a crazy place sometimes...

 

 

The missing notes if they still exist are likely in Dodd's papers.  Are these in a library or perhaps in the possession of his family?