Ok, now I'm confused and frustrated. I read Intelligent Investor a little less than a year ago. I set up a screener that only shows me large cap, with p/e less than 20, price/book less than 1.5, and some dividends. I went for the companies with low price/book (like .40-.60). I actually made a lot of money doing that, and I turned a profit on nearly everything I touched. However, I went looking for those same stocks in your screener, and none of them matched Ben's criteria. So I bought the original 1949 book and started reading again, I'm just super confused. In his chapter on defensive investing, he only has four criteria:
1. Adequate but not excessive diversification
2. Large, prominent, conservatively financed
3. Long record of continuous div. payments
4. P/E less than 20 or 25.
It seems like Serenity uses a lot more rules, and different ones? Is there a way I can learn this stuff easier? The book is just so confusing.
Submitted by Tylersuard. Created on Friday 29th July 2016. Updated on Wednesday 6th March 2019.
Recommended Edition
Thank you again for your forum post, Tylersuard!
Serenity's screeners are based on the rules in the last edition of The Intelligent Investor that Graham wrote himself. For details, please see Recommended Edition of The Intelligent Investor.
To see the rules themselves and the chapters they are based on, please see Quick Reference - Graham and Serenity.
However, it's not surprising that you were able to turn a profit even on an older edition with fewer rules. Graham's framework is a system of checks and balances that has extreme Margins of Safety built into it.
Thank you once again!