Benjamin Graham
Portfolio
How position sizing, concentration, and risk fit the style.
Holdings and investment positions
Benjamin Graham's surviving records describe the portfolios of Graham-Newman and earlier partnerships, not a complete modern-style list of every security he personally owned. The holdings below are the best-documented examples and categories from his investing career.
Documented holdings
GEICO: Graham-Newman led a purchase of a controlling interest in 1948. Regulatory requirements later forced the fund to distribute shares to its investors, and GEICO became the standout long-term investment associated with Graham.
Northern Pipeline: Graham accumulated shares after finding that the company's liquid securities were worth substantially more than its market price. He then pressed management to return excess assets to shareholders.
Net-net stocks: Graham-Newman regularly owned diversified baskets of companies trading below net current asset value. Many individual names were small and are less important than the repeated category.
Liquidations and arbitrage: The portfolio included merger, reorganization, liquidation, and other special-situation positions whose returns depended on a defined corporate event.
Cash and high-grade bonds: Defensive assets accompanied equities and provided liquidity rather than serving as short-term market forecasts.
What the record does not show
GEICO and Northern Pipeline are often presented as if they were Graham's whole portfolio. In reality, much of his capital was spread across numerous discounted securities and event-driven positions. No current holdings exist: Graham retired from active management in the 1950s and died in 1976.
How to read this list
This page identifies what Graham owned and the role each holding played. Detailed analysis of why GEICO or Northern Pipeline succeeded belongs in the Best Investments section.