What is Value Investing?

Value investing is the practice of buying stocks for less than they are worth. It sounds obvious, but the vast majority of market participants do the opposite — they buy stocks that are going up, hoping they will continue going up. Value investors do the opposite: they look for stocks the market is ignoring or underpricing.

The Core Idea

Every company has an intrinsic value — what it is actually worth based on its assets, earnings, cash flow, and future prospects. The stock price is what the market is willing to pay right now. When the stock price is significantly below intrinsic value, you have a value opportunity.

Who Practises Value Investing?

The most successful investors in history have been value investors: Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Seth Klarman, Joel Greenblatt, and Howard Marks. Buffett has called Graham's The Intelligent Investor "by far the best book about investing ever written."

Why It Works

Value investing works because markets are not perfectly efficient in the short term. Fear, greed, institutional constraints, and lack of analyst coverage create temporary mispricings. Patient investors who buy during these mispricings and hold until the market corrects earn above-average returns over time.

Getting Started

Start with our Benjamin Graham guide, then explore the Net-Net Screener to find current opportunities. The Top 100 Leaderboard ranks all tracked stocks by our composite DipBuster Score.