The Value Investor

On a very general level, much investing can be simply described as turning $1 today into more than $1 in the future, or equivalently, buying $1 to be received in the future for less than $1 today. The latter form emphasizes the importance of entering an investment at a low price, as the less an investor pays today for that dollar, the higher the rate of return that investor will have realized on eventually receiving that dollar. This chapter aims to provide an elementary explanation of the effort-intensive way many value investors implement this in practice, from making sure that eventual dollar is really worth a dollar, to trying to buy that future dollar at a low enough price today.