While knowing how to value businesses is essential for investment success, the first and perhaps most important step in the investment process is knowing where to look for opportunities.
2）好的投资念头并不多，也很珍贵，需要努力去发现。它们不会轻易从我们的窗前飞过，也难以在贫瘠的土壤里生根发芽。尽管华尔街和计算机程序偶尔也可以提供一些投资方向，但投资者不要奢望毫不费力地从华尔街的推荐里得到很多启示，不论他们多么强烈地推荐，也不要期望通过敲击一下键盘就可以发现好的投资标的，无论程序设计得多么完美。
Good investment ideas are rare and valuable things, which must be ferreted out assiduously. They do not fly in over the transom or materialize out of thin air. Investors cannot assume that good ideas will come effortlessly from scanning the recommendations of Wall Street analysts, no matter how highly regarded, or from punching up computers, no matter how cleverly programmed, although both can sometimes indicate interesting places to hunt.
3）偶尔情况下，好机会是如此多，唯一的限制因素是缺少资金；一般情况下，好机会的数量非常有限。在寻找有限的好特定投资机会之前，通过找到好机会通常存在的地方，投资者可以将他们从多数情况下都会无功而返的机会寻找中解脱出来。
Upon occasion attractive opportunities are so numerous that the only limiting factor is the availability of funds to invest; typically the number of attractive opportunities is much more limited. By identifying where the most attractive opportunities are likely to arise before starting one's quest for the exciting handful of specific investments, investors can spare themselves an often fruitless survey of the humdrum majority of available investments.
4）价值投资者拥有一些特定的投资机会，大致可以分为三类：相对于清算价格，以折价卖出的证券；可以准确计算收益率的情况；资产转换时存在的机会。
Value investing encompasses a number of specialized investment niches that can be divided into three categories: securities selling at a discount to breakup or liquidation value, rate-of-return situations, and asset-conversion opportunities.
5）例如，通过浏览计算机数据帮助寻找第一类机会：寻找那些在清算价格以下出售的股票。
Computer-screening techniques, for example, can be helpful in identifying stocks of the first category: those selling at a discount from liquidation value.
6）风险套利和复杂证券属于第二类机会，这里回购，收购或并购的时间和价格基本已知，所以在投资时，投资者已经可以计算出投资收益。（备注：这类活动的公告会发布在各大证券刊物上，如公司承诺在什么时段内，不低于什么价格回购股票，等等。）
Risk arbitrage and complex securities comprise a second category of attractive value investments with known exit prices and approximate time frames, which, taken together, enable investors to calculate expected rates of return at the time the investments are made.
7）财务困难和破产证券、企业资本结构调整、股权交换等资产转换运作都属于第三类，这里投资者手里的证券可以交换成一种或多种新的证券。
Financially distressed and bankrupt securities, corporate recapitalizations, and exchange offers all fall into the category of asset conversions, in which investors' existing holdings are exchanged for one or more new securities.
8）找到新的机会后，任务并没有结束，投资者还要找到便宜的原因。
The research task does not end with the discovery of an apparent bargain. It is incumbent on investors to try to find out why the bargain has become available.
9）这种合理怀疑（相差不大的两套房子价差很大，人的第一反应可能是低价房屋可能存在问题。）同样适用于证券市场。你需要对便宜货反复考量，寻找可能存在的合理解释。也许仅仅是因为非理性或缺乏兴趣导致的，也许还存在基本面方面的原因。
The same healthy skepticism applies to the stock market. A bargain should be inspected and reinspected for possible flaws. Irrational or indifferent selling alone may have made it cheap, but there may be more fundamental reasons for the depressed price.
10）当低估的问题找到后，投资就会变得可行，因为收益预测可以变得更简单。
When the reason for the undervaluation can be clearly identified, it becomes an even better investment because the outcome is more predictable.
11）价值投资天生就是逆趋势的。不被看好的股票才能被低估，热门股则很难被低估。从定义上看，“羊群们”买入的就是热门的。热门股的股价被乐观预期抬高，一般不会成为被遗忘的好投资。
Value investing by its very nature is contrarian. Out-of-favor securities may be undervalued; popular securities almost never are. What the herd is buying is, by definition, in favor. Securities in favor have already been bid up in price on the basis of optimistic expectations and are unlikely to represent good value that has been overlooked.
12）投资者可能发现要确定“逆行是否正确”和“什么时候能够证明是正确的”这两个问题是很困难的。由于逆“羊群”而为，逆行者往往在初始阶段会被认为是“错误的”，而且可能会发生生账面亏损，而此时，“羊群”内的一分子们却往往被证明是“正确的”。不光是暂时被证明是错误的，而且在很长一段时期也被证明是错误的，因为市场趋势可能会在较长一段时期内击败基本面。
Investors may find it difficult to act as contrarians for they can never be certain whether or when they will be proven correct. Since they are acting against the crowd, contrarians are almost always initially wrong and likely for a time to suffer paper losses. By contrast, members of the herd are nearly always right for a period. Not only are contrarians initially wrong, they may be wrong more often and for longer periods than others because market trends can continue long past any limits warranted by underlying value.
13）然而，持有相反观点并不一定都有益。当多数意见对手里的股票没有影响时，逆潮流游泳就会无所收获。大家都同意明天太阳依旧会升起，但这种意见对于这种结果并没有任何影响。同理，只有当大多数人的意见影响结果时，才可以逆势而行了。（备注：热到一定程度，方可以选择退出并逆行，如何确定这个程度需要技巧。但多数情况下，退出时机把握的误差只会影响收益的多少，而不会影响到是否收益。同理，冷要冷到股票价格承压到一定程度，已经使得股价显著降低，便宜货唾手可得方可选择出手。）
Holding a contrary opinion is not always useful to investors, however. When widely held opinions have no influence on the issue at hand, nothing is gained by swimming against the tide. It is always the consensus that the sun will rise tomorrow, but this view does not influence the outcome. By contrast, when majority opinion does affect the outcome or the odds, contrary opinion can be put to use.
14）（了解的企业信息是否越多越好？）但是信息遵循80/20规则：80%的有用信息是来自于前20%的收集时间。在基本面分析面方面进行深度分析时，越往后获得的有用信息越少。
But information generally follows the well-known 80/20 rule: the first 80 percent of the available information is gathered in the first 20 percent of the time spent. The value of in-depth fundamental analysis is subject to diminishing marginal returns.
15）投资者经常可以从在掌握并不完美的信息得出的结论中获益，也可在承担一定风险的时候得到回报。当其他人也从原先还没有解决的问题中挖掘到有用信息时，他们已经难以在超低的价格上取得优势，而在尚不完美信息上作出的有一定风险的决定却可以。
Investors frequently benefit from making investment decisions with less than perfect knowledge and are well rewarded for bearing the risk of uncertainty. The time other investors spend delving into the last unanswered detail may cost them the chance to buy in at prices so low that they offer a margin of safety despite the incomplete information.
16）在收集企业完美信息过程中，投资者经常漏掉一个重要的信息源。在很多情况下，外人永远不会比企业管理人员更了解企业。因此，当企业内部人员买入自己企业的股票时，投资者也可以跟着做。（备注：让巴菲特感到比较遗憾的一件事是：没有跟着Tesco的管理层一起卖掉Tesco的股票，导致7亿美元以上的损失。）
In their search for complete information on businesses, investors often overlook one very important clue. In most instances no one understands a business and its prospects better than the management. Therefore investors should be encouraged when corporate insiders invest their own money alongside that of shareholders by purchasing stock in the open market.
17）在华尔街有一句经常被提及的话：内部人员买股票的原因可能很多（需要现金缴税、付费用等），但买入的原因却是唯一的。（备注：指股票被低估。）
It is often said on Wall Street that there are many reasons why an insider might sell a stock (need for cash to pay taxes, expenses, etc.), but there is only one reason for buying.
18）投资研究是将大量资料进行筛选，找出那些有用信息的过程，即从麦壳里面筛选出可投资的麦粒。毫无疑问，麦壳的量要远多于麦粒。研究自身就像工厂的车间并不产生利润。利润产生于研究之后，或此后的很长一段时间，那时候，在研究中找到的低估股票在市场上得到认可。实际上，经常出现的情况是：在研究之后并不一定马上出现好的买入机会，今天的研究或许更应该是为明日的买入做准备。
Investment research is the process of reducing large piles of information to manageable ones, distilling the investment wheat from the chaff. There is, needless to say, a lot of chaff and very little wheat. The research process itself, like the factory of a manufacturing company, produces no profits. The profits materialize later, often much later, when the undervaluation identified during the research process is first translated into portfolio decisions and then eventually recognized by the market. In fact, often there is no immediate buying opportunity; today's research may be advance preparation for tomorrow's opportunities
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