The Origins - From Graham to Buffett to Modern Investors

When I first started investing, I came across a few books and names that would shape the way I thought about investing. The first was A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel. This book gave me my first real glimpse into the fascinating world of investing, introducing me to the fundamentals in a way that was clear and approachable.

Back then, I wasn’t thinking about portfolios or financial freedom. I just wanted to understand how people made money work for them. I had no idea that my engineering mindset - focused on logic, systems, and precision - would later become one of my biggest strengths as an investor.

One of the key lessons I took from it is that past stock prices don’t predict the future. Malkiel explains that the stock market is close to “perfect” - it generally reflects all the information available that could affect prices. Of course, there are exceptions, like insider information, but the takeaway is simple: historic trends are not reliable guides for future stock performance.

This was a pivotal moment for me. It made me question the value of chasing short-term patterns or trying to predict the market through technical analysis. At first, I believed investing was about spotting the right stock at the right time. Over time, I realized it’s really about understanding value, behavior, and patience. Instead, I began to appreciate the importance of understanding the underlying business itself - its value, its potential, and the quality of its management.

From there, I naturally gravitated toward the giants of value investing: Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. Graham taught the principles of buying businesses for less than they’re worth, focusing on safety and long-term growth. Buffett, his most famous scholar, showed how these principles could be applied in the real world, blending rigorous analysis with patience and common sense. Together, they became the guiding lights for how I approach investing today.

When I first discovered Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis, I was struck by their clarity and rigor. These books laid out the foundations of value investing in a way that made perfect sense to an engineer like me: how to assess a company’s intrinsic value, focus on margin of safety, and avoid emotional-driven decisions. Even today, these principles remain essential - they teach discipline, logic, and patience.

That said, some aspects of Graham’s methods are harder to apply in today’s market. The world has changed: we now have businesses with recurring revenue models, network effects, and intangible assets that Graham couldn’t have fully accounted for. Purely number-driven analysis sometimes misses the bigger picture - the competitive advantage, the quality of the business model, or the strength of its “moat.” Today, I still rely on the fundamentals from Graham’s work, but I expand my lens to include these qualitative factors. Subscription - based businesses, for example, can create predictable revenue streams that aren’t obvious from balance sheets alone. (We’ll dive deeper into these ideas later.)

Even when determining intrinsic value, there’s no single “correct” formula. Different investors have their own methods, and the numbers are just one piece of the puzzle. Lately, I’ve found that combining fundamental analysis with a layer of technical observation can be surprisingly useful. In a world where anyone can trade on their phone without consulting a broker, price levels that attract buying or selling - the so-called support and resistance zones - often hold psychological significance. Watching these zones can give you an extra edge, highlighting where real demand exists in the market. 

What truly changed my perspective was realizing that the market isn’t something to outsmart - it’s something to understand. Once I stopped treating it like a game of prediction, everything became simpler and more logical.

In short, the foundations from Graham books and Buffett letters are timeless, but the way we apply them evolves. By blending classic intrinsic value analysis with modern business insight and a touch of technical awareness, I’ve been able to adapt the old lessons to today’s dynamic market.

With that foundation, I began developing my own framework for evaluating businesses - one that combines the structured thinking of engineering with the patience of investing.

Up next — Chapter Three:
Discover the core principles that define successful value investing — from margin of safety and intrinsic value to patience, emotional control, and the power of long-term thinking.

To Be Continued

This was Chapter Two of the Value Investing Guide.
If you haven’t read Chapter One, start there to build the foundation - click the button below to begin.