I found this article in WSJ today, well through a friend- H/T to Ravi of Rational Walk, who runs one of the best value blogs in my opinion. The article compares two Bens; Ben Bernanke, and legendary value investor, Benjamin Graham.
I normally do not do partial posts with a link anymore, but this one was very interesting. Here is a brief excerpt, followed by a link to the full article:
Two disparate views of markets represent well the range of opinion among U.S. stock market participants today. One is a devout faith in market efficiency and the supremacy of market pricing as a reflection and forecast of fundamental value. The other expects errors and biases in market pricing.
The first should be recognizable as belonging to Ben Bernanke (easily the biggest trader and most significant market manipulator in history); the other to Ben Graham, the father of value investing. With which Benjamin do you agree?
I think a simple thought experiment best answers this question. Imagine a world where the stock market is open for trading only one hour of every year. No more scrolling stock tickers or central bank scuttlebutt on interest rate policy (and certainly far fewer insufferable hedge fund managers and Wall Street traders).
If this would change how you invest, then apparently a steady stream of market quotations is a sine qua non of your investment process; a trade makes sense to you when validated and quickly rewarded by the constant transactional opinions of your friends in the marketplace. You are a Benjamin Bernanke trader.
To read the full article click here.
