financial markets in Europe long before it was fashionable in New York . In the early 1950s , getting a copy of the paper was both difficult and very expensive . During a trip to London with Ruth in 1953 , he visited the office of the FT and pointed out that they were overlooking a sizeable subscriber base in the United States . Kahn recalls , “ When I suggested they publish the paper in America , they laughed . Less than a year later , they sent their circulation manager to the US to investigate … Now , one of their largest circulations is in the US .”
Irving always lived within his means . His son , Tom , recalls that he was “ frugal and comfortable in his own skin . He drove an old car when others moved on to Cadillacs .” He was an intellectual especially interested in new technologies . He visited Brookhaven National Labs in Stony Brook , Long Island , and was fascinated by their research work in nuclear and high energy physics .
Professional Career
After leaving CCNY in 1928 — one year before the outbreak of the Great Depression — Kahn landed a job as a courier ( runner ) at a stock brokerage company , Hammerschlag Borg . He requested reassignment to the research and analysis department , which was more suited to his personality .
In June 1929 , he began his investing career by shorting 50 shares of Magma Copper , a hot stock at the time . When the market crashed on October 29 , his $ 300 investment soared . “ I wasn ’ t smart ,” Kahn recalled in a 2006 interview with NPR , “ but even a dumb young kid could see these guys were gambling . They were all borrowing money and having a good time and being right for a few months and , after that , you know what happened .”
From 1930 to 1945 , Kahn worked as a broker for Wertheim & Co . and Loeb Rhoades & Co . During the war years , he mentored German Jewish refugees when they came to work at Loeb Rhoades .
In 1945 , he became a partner of J . R . Williston & Beane and later he became a partner at Abraham & Co ., where he ran the Kahn investment team for many years . Abraham & Co . was known as an expert in risk arbitrage , especially time arbitrage trading between New York and Europe , and subsequently merger & acquisition arbitrage .
Irving Kahn as a young man with his parents in the late 1930s .
Kahn ’ s sons , Alan and Tom , joined him in the 1960s after completing their educations . In 1975 , Lehman Brothers purchased Abraham & Co ., and over the next few years conflicts developed about customer account coverage within the expanded organization . By 1978 , Alan and Tom decided to leave and establish their own firm , Kahn Brothers .
The company purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and maintained their relationship with Lehman Brothers by signing an agreement with Lehman to handle their brokerage clients .
Relationship with Ben Graham ( 1928 – 1976 )
At the start of his career in 1928 , Kahn worked for Hammerschlag Borg during the day and for a larger company , H . Hentz & Co ., at night . One evening , the bookkeeper of H . Hentz showed him the Benjamin Graham Joint Account , which had almost all profitable trades . Soon after that meeting , Kahn discovered that Graham worked in the same building as H . Hentz . He approached Graham , who invited him to sit in on his course during its first semester in 1928 at Columbia University .
Thus began a lifelong friendship and mentorship with the founder of valuebased security analysis . After two years , Kahn became Graham ’ s teaching assistant , helping him to prepare and teach his security analysis class each week . On Thursday afternoons , he and Graham took the subway up from Wall Street to Columbia Business School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for a two-hour class in the evening . Graham would read financial publications and suggest ideas for Kahn to research .
Kahn recalled that Graham “ always believed in the Socratic approach . He never provided students with a ready answer , believing that through thorough discussions and rational deductions , solid
Courtesy of Andrew Kahn www . MoAF . org | Spring 2021 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 25