Gerald M. Loeb

Gerald Martin Loeb (July 24, 1899 – April 13, 1974) was a founding partner of E.F. Hutton & Co., a renowned Wall Street trading and brokerage firm. He was the author of the books The Battle For Investment Survival^[2] and The Battle For Stock Market Profits. Loeb promoted a view of the market as too risky to hold stocks for the long term, in contrast to well-known value investors. He also created the Gerald Loeb Award, given annually for excellence in various categories of financial journalism.^[3]

Gerald M. Loeb
Born	Gerald Martin Loeb[1] (1899-07-24)July 24, 1899 San Francisco
Died	April 13, 1974(1974-04-13) (aged 74)
Occupation(s)	Stockbroker, Investment banker
Years active	1921–1974
Employer	E.F. Hutton & Co.
Known for	Wall Street Trader, author

Early life

Loeb was born to Dahlia H. Levy and Solomon E. Loeb on July 24, 1899, in San Francisco, California.^[4][5][6] His brother, Sydney, was born on December 14, 1903.^[7][8] Solomon was a wealthy wine merchant from New Orleans.^[5][9] Dahlia was the daughter of Herman M. Levy, a wealthy merchant who made his fortune selling goods to miners during the California gold rush and the Comstock Lode silver rush in Nevada.^[10][11][12]

Two family tragedies struck Loeb when he was eight years old. First, his maternal grandfather died on June 25, 1908.^[12] Then, a week later on the 4th of July, his father was killed in a train collision in downtown Oakland while returning from a day trip to Santa Cruz to make arrangements for an upcoming family vacation there.^[11] A local train struck the smoking car of a Southern Pacific Railroad (SPR) train after the SPR train's engineer ignored the stop signal at the intersection of two tracks, killing several people in the car.^[11][13] SPR paid Dahlia and her children an $8,000 settlement (equivalent to $280,000 in 2024) split evenly among the three.^[14] The deaths of Loeb's father and grandfather made his mother very wealthy.^[15]

Loeb was afflicted with polio around the time of his father's death.^[1] The disease interfered with his schooling and derailed his ambitions to become an architect.^[1][16]

Loeb graduated from Lowell High School in San Francisco.^[17]

Career and writing

Loeb began his career in 1921, working in the bond department of a securities firm in San Francisco.^[18] He moved to New York in 1924 after joining E. F. Hutton & Co., and became vice-chairman of the board when the company incorporated in 1962.^[18]

Although he had largely avoided personal losses, the Wall Street crash of 1929 greatly affected Loeb's investing style, making him skeptical of holding stocks for the long term. Loeb offered a contrarian investing viewpoint, in books and columns in Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, and Investor Magazine.^[3][18] Forbes magazine called Loeb "the most quoted man on Wall Street."^[19]

Loeb's first book, The Battle for Investment Survival (1935), sold over 200,000 copies during the Great Depression.^[2][3] Loeb updated the book in 1957 and 1965, as it attained the status of a classic financial text. In 1971, Loeb published The Battle for Stock Market Profits as a follow-up to his original book where he depicted the market as a battlefield.^[18] Loeb's books are still widely read today and hailed by many as a staple for investment professionals.

Personal life

Loeb married Rose Lobree Benjamin on April 11, 1947, in San Francisco.^[20][21] Rose, the widow of Shanghai real estate developer Maurice Benjamin, was born in 1900 or 1901 in Brentwood, California, to Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Lobree.^[22][21][23]

See also

• Gerald Loeb Award