THE  OBJECT  OF  THIS  BOOK.

Upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  actual
work  among  investors  and  their  investments
has  proved  to  us  that  the  only  means  for
insuring  permanent  investment  success  consists ­
  in  the  adoption  of  a  true  and  systematic
method  of  averaging  investment  risks.  However ­
  carefully  any  single  investment  may
be  investigated  prior  to  its  purchase,  and
however  desirable  from  every  point  of  view
it  may  seem  at  that  time,  yet  its  future
progress  always  remains  an  uncertain  and  unascertainable
  quantity.  The  history  of  stock
market  fluctuations  proves  that  there  is  no
stock  in  existence,  the  future  realisable  value
of  which  is  ascertainable  with  certainty  ;
hence  it  is  impossible  to  eliminate  the  individual ­
  risks  attending  the  purchase  of  any
single  investment.
This  fundamental  principle  having  been
established,  it  naturally  follows  that  the  only
method  by  which  investment  success  can  be
made  permanent  is  to  insure  against  this  uncertainty ­
  in  the  realisable  value  of  any  single