Let’s start with value investinga favorite of “buy and hold” investors as opposed to traders. Warren Buffett and, before him, Benjamin Graham were experts at this strategy. They’d look for the best companies to invest in with strong management and a product you could understand combined with value a stock price that was significantly below what it should be.In Graham’s and even in Buffet’s early years, this involved some good detective work because many corporate financial numbers weren’t readily available. it’s a lot easier to find stock trading information via the Internet and new measurements have been created to define a company’s strength and performance. Analysts and brokers have subscription services that will rate a stock according to various yardsticks. Value investing—the Buffett/Graham approach—is as popular as ever, particularly in an aging bull market like where stocks overall have gotten expensive. However, investors may be misled into buying a stock just because it’s cheap. It could be the company’s business is in decline, or it’s facing regulatory or management problems, and the stock is fairly priced even at a low level. Alcoa (ticker: AA) was one such stock until recently, when a better earnings picture may have turned it into a value play after all.