Friday, November 23, 2018

The Legacy of Irving Kahn

Irving Kahn


We talked a lot in class about how the majority of the American people suffered from the Great Depression and how the Stock Market crash of 1929 was detrimental to everyone invested in stocks. However, there were some people that got rich because of the crash. We talked about it briefly, but I’d thought I’d do a little more research into the specific people that came out on top because of America’s economic struggles…


Irving Kahn was a New York-born Wall Street investor. Although most people suffered from the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Kahn’s first stock trade was in June of the same here. He had made a hefty profit from this trade four months later when the market crashed. That summer, he sold 50 Magma Copper shares which were valued at $300. Today, that would equal about $4,000 and after the crash, it doubled.


His preference on investments was in cheap stocks considering he worked for Ben Graham. Kahn thought on investing on something that wasn’t scientific. He saw it as an art and something that didn’t depend on equations or certain rules. He also believed more in value than he did in growth. He saw stocks for what they were at that point in time rather than considering what they could be worth later. Kahn’s strategy now is to look at the companies of lowest value and sees if there are opportunities for him to make money.


After the Great Depression, Irving Kahn went on to be an extremely respectable investor and lived until 109. He died February 24, 2015, and went on to be the oldest active Wall Street investor. Although some people suffered from the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and many more in the Great Depression, there were still people who timed their investments right and were able to come out on top.


http://basehitinvesting.com/99-year-old-irving-kahn-discusses-his-investment-philosophy/

3 comments:

  1. I like that you wrote about this because I was curious too- we barely discussed it in class. What did Kahn do with his heaping stacks? Anyways, really interesting post and well done :)

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  2. I found this very interesting as well. Specially the strategy that he took when investing and buying things for their value at the moment not later when they possibly could or couldn't get more valuable. I think that this relates to most people today who are just trying to make as much money as they can in the moment not in 10 or 15 years.

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  3. This was a really interesting post and I really like that you chose to focus on something that we don't know much about and is also something we wouldn't expect given that we always associate the Depression with devastation. I also like how you talked about the different ways people can view the buying and selling of stocks.

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