Investment and Speculation: Studies of Modern Movements and Basic Principles by Chamberlain, Lawrence and Hay, William Wren - 1931

New York: Henry Holt and Company,, 1931. Stocks as speculation First edition, first printing, of one of the first and most important books on common stocks analysis and investment in the aftermath of the 1929 crash, arguing that all common stock buying is speculative rather than a sound long-term investment. Written by the influential Wall Street broker Lawrence Chamberlain (author of the 1911 Principles of Bond Investments) and market analyst William Wren Hay, the book is critical of treating common stocks as investments and is implicitly a rejection of Edgar Smith's influential Common Stocks as Long Term Investments, published in 1924. The authors claim Smith's approach led to the stock market boom and resulting crash. Chamberlain and Hay assert that common stocks "are not superior to bonds as long term investments, because primarily they are not investments at all. They are speculations". They instead promote bonds as secure investments. A few years later Graham and Dodd in Security Analysis… Read More