Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond
- ISBN13: 9780471463399
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description”This book deserves a place on every serious investor’s shelf. ” –FINANCIAL TIMES “A must-read for all disciples of value investing. In 1934, Graham and Dodd created fundamental security analysis. Greenwald reinforces the worth of this approach, incorporates new advances, and takes their work into the twenty-first century. ” –Mario J. Gabelli, Chairman, Gabelli Asset Management, Inc. “The new title most deserving of your time is Value Investing . . . . Its authors aim to place their work next to Benjamin Graham’s 1950 classic, The Intelligent Investor. My 1986 edition came with Warren Buffett’s endorsement–‘by far the best book on investing ever written. ’ Value Investing is better. ” –Robert Barker, BusinessWeek “Greenwald is an economist (PhD from MIT) who caught the value bug. He has updated and expanded Graham’s ideas, and his summer seminars ($2,900 for two days) have become popular with ever. . . More >>
Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond
Sunday, 14. March 2010 19:44
The back cover of this book modestly proclaims that Mr. Greenwald is the “guru of Wall Street’s gurus”. I don’t know what kind of gurus there are on Wall Street but if Mr. Greenwald is their mentor then I really feel sorry for them. The very next day after I finished reading ‘Value Investing’ I attended a presentation, sponsored by NYSSA’s Private Wealth Management Committee, where the author (editor?) presented the book. The presentation confirmed my first impressions: Not only is Mr. Greenwald confused about what Value Investing is but he doesn’t seem to understand some fundamental concepts in Finance. For example, he claims that Compaq’s major problem stems from the fact that the company put Alta Vista at market value on the balance sheet and then they had to write it off. Hasn’t Mr. Greenwald heard about sunk costs? Investing in Alta Vista may have been a poor decision that destroyed shareholders’ value but it is something that pertains to the past. It is not something that will continue to influence the firm’s operating results in the future. Greenwald claims that using asset valuation based on reproduction costs provides more accurate estimate of what the company might be worth then using NPV. According to him, NPV is too difficult to estimate and therefore is almost useless. I agree that NPV is difficult to estimate but if it was easy then everyone could be rich, right? In order to do better an individual investor must have a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is something that one can do but the competition cannot. If balance sheet reading is easier than future cash flow forecasting then more investors should be able to do the former rather than the later. But if many people can do it then it does not give any competitive advantage. Those lucky few who have the exceptional ability to forecast future cash flows will have the competitive advantage and they will be the ones who will make billions of dollars. If Warren Buffet could not do something that is difficult for others then he wouldn’t be so rich. The fact that NPV is difficult to estimate does not make it useless. On contrary, the difficulty makes it even more valuable because it gives competitive advantage to those who have the rare gift to see farther than the average individual. The author claims that markets are not efficient but his idea of market inefficiency is very peculiar. According to him, for example, there cannot be any value in K-Mart because if there were any value in that stock then the horde of analyst, who follow the company, would have discovered it by now. I am not familiar with K-Mart but the statement he made sounds familiar to what the proponents of Efficient Market Hypothesis keep telling: markets are efficient because thousands of bright analysts are working day and night to uncover hidden value. If one can’t find value because analysts have already dug out everything there is to know then what makes markets inefficient? Selling stocks to buy Christmas gifts? This can hardly be enough. The authors do make some good points but overall the book is bad.
Rating: 2 / 5
Sunday, 14. March 2010 22:11
There is simply not enough value in this book to justify using it. I’m sorry but words like Alta Vista and Cisco just should not appear anywhere in a value investing book. Period and discussion over. At least not up to the present. Maybe in the future but I doubt it. Also there is way too much verbage to describe much of nothing. The modern budding value investor would be better served by other book including Security Analysis by Graham. A lot of detail is missing here and much of the analysis leaves one wondering if the authors know what value investing really is.
Rating: 2 / 5
Sunday, 14. March 2010 23:56
I think some expect this to be “the Intelligent Investor” which is decidedly is not. But for a lighter modern intro to what kind of thinking is behind value investing this book succeeds quite well. Enough examples to get the idea across. And written so it reads easily. If you find yourself wanting more, then just order “the Intelligent Investor” for your next read.
But this book succeeds quite well in the areas it aims to make clear.
Rating: 4 / 5
Monday, 15. March 2010 1:46
Not a bad stab at the basics, but the debt owed to others is immense. One third of the book consists of excerpts from Warren Buffett’s Essays, disorganized, and better read in the collection THE ESSAYS OF WARREN BUFFETT: LESSONS FOR CORPORATE AMERICA (a full compilation by topic, well organized and rave reviewed). The hats off to some other top investors too, whose profiles are shallow and would be better to read them directly too. The rest is a skeleton outline, better delivered in several other books on the masters like Buffett and teacher Ben Graham (neither of whom, incidentally, even believe there is such a thing as the title of this book suggests there is–value investing is a redundancy they say, though the authors of this book don’t grasp that basic point).
Rating: 2 / 5
Monday, 15. March 2010 4:18
able presentation of popular value investing course taught by best teacher at columbia b’school. clear & down-to-earth, by a very smart guy.
Rating: 5 / 5