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 con 
sists in the adoption of a true and systematic 
method of averaging investment risks. How 
ever 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 un- 
ascertainable 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 in 
dividual 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 un 
certainty in the realisable value of any single