Words to Remember
Markets Reward The Realists 🧠
“The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.”
The line is Jason Zweig's, from his note on Graham in the 2003 revised edition of The Intelligent Investor, where he summarizes Graham's core principles. Graham's own text does not contain it.
Why we ran it
The week U.S. forces captured Maduro, the issue set aside the hot takes and asked only what was happening, what might happen next, and how markets would price it. Graham's realist is the investor who does exactly that while everyone else argues.
From the January 9, 2026 issue: Big Stick Economics Is Back →