In 2012, at 106, Kahn told Bloomberg Businessweek that Graham’s principles, though relevant as ever, were increasingly being drowned out by noise.

“I’ve seen a lot of recoveries,” he said. “I saw crash, recovery, World War II, a lot of economic decline and recovery. What’s different about this time is the huge amount of quote- unquote information. So many people watch financial TV at bars, in the barber shop. This superfluity of information, all this static in the air.”

The Longevity Genes Project at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York took special interest in Kahn and his three siblings, who met the definition of “SuperAgers” -- people who reached 95 without having cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or dementia.

Kahn’s sister, Helen Reichert, died six weeks shy of her 110th birthday, in 2011. Another sister, Leonore, died in 2005 at 101, healthy until injuring herself in a fall. The youngest sibling, Peter, died at 103 in February 2014. He and Helen had changed their surnames to Keane after encountering anti-Semitism in the 1930s, said Thomas Kahn.

Drops Out

Irving Kahn was born in Manhattan on Dec. 19, 1905, to Saul Kahn, a salesman of electric fixtures, and his wife, Mamie. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and attended City College for two years before dropping out to go into business.

In 1928, working as a clerk at the Wall Street brokerage Kuhn, Loeb & Co., Kahn heard about a trader named Graham who seemed to know how to outperform the market. Kahn visited Graham’s office at the New York Cotton Exchange, and an alliance was born.

“I learned from Ben Graham that one could study financial statements to find stocks that were a ‘dollar selling for 50 cents,’” Kahn told the Telegraph. “He called this the ‘margin of safety’ and it’s still the most important concept related to risk.”

In June 1929, Kahn sold short 50 shares of Magma Copper, betting $300 -- more than $4,000 in today’s dollars -- that the price would fall. Four months later, on Oct. 29, 1929, the market crashed. Kahn’s $300 investment would triple in value.

Trader ‘Gambling’