Deal Terms - The Finer Points of Venture Capital Deal Structures, Valuations, Term Sheets, Stock Options and Getting VC Deals Done (Inside the Minds)

Deal Terms - The Finer Points of Venture Capital Deal Structures, Valuations, Term Sheets, Stock Options and Getting VC Deals Done (Inside the Minds)
Average customer rating:

A Quick Guide to Venture Capital Thinking

Great Book - But Even Better is Author DVD Called Negotiating Term Sheets & Valuations in VC Deals

Very Disappointed

Solid reference for entrepreneurs

Helpful, practical, and brilliant!

Deal Terms - The Finer Points of Venture Capital Deal Structures, Valuations, Term Sheets, Stock Options and Getting VC Deals Done (Inside the Minds)
Alex Wilmerding
Manufacturer: Aspatore Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations (Bigwig Briefs)

Venture Capital Due Diligence: A Guide to Making Smart Investment Choices and Increasing Your Portfolio Returns

Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook

Angel Investing: Matching Startup Funds with Startup Companies -- A Guide for Entrepreneurs, Individual Investors, and Venture Capitalists

Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition

ASIN: 1587622084

Book Description

Deal Terms is the first ever in-depth look at valuations, preferred stock, stock options and other variables that affect deal structure, written by Alex Wilmerding (a venture capitalist at Boston Capital Ventures and best selling author of Term Sheets & Valuations). Written from a venture capital perspective, however applicable for all types of financings, Deal Terms includes actual term sheets, valuation methodology and analysis, assessment of stock option programs and their impact on valuations and capital structures and other real world documents used by leading venture capitalists and lawyers analyzed from multiple perspectives. A must have book for any executive, entrepreneur, or financial professional, this timeless classic is an unprecedented resource that will help you avoid costly mistakes, understand various structures and terms, and understand wording and language from other deal sheets to help you get deals done.

According to Graham Anderson, General Partner at Euclid SR Partners, "Deal Terms provides critical, in-depth, first-hand perspective on the crucial terms and factors which influence financing decisions." Clifford Schorer, Entrepreneur in Residence, Columbia Business School remarks, "Deal Terms is an indispensable reference for entrepreneurs and finance professionals." And Andrew McKee, General Partner at Webster Capital notes, "Deal Terms is a really important resource."

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Customer Reviews:

A Quick Guide to Venture Capital Thinking.......2006-06-21

This book, one claimed by the publisher to fall into the need-to-read category rather than the nice-to-read, is aimed at giving the businessman the information he needs to know to be able to hold an intelligent conversation with a venture capitalist.

It's a pretty quick and easy read, but the businessman who has gotten his business up to the stage where outside money is needed is probably not a financial type but an engineer, or scientist or perhaps just plain businessman. This book, written from the venture capitalist standpoint, will explain to him such things as how to value a company, verious types of stock, dilution of the ownership, in short, all of the things that will need to be understood when a big time financial deal goes down.

It's not an in depth book, each of these subjects can and has several books describing them 'in depth.' Instead it is a small book that gives you what you need to know quickly.

Great Book - But Even Better is Author DVD Called Negotiating Term Sheets & Valuations in VC Deals.......2006-05-17

This author definitely knows his stuff - but even better is author's new product called Negotiating Term Sheets and Valuations in Venture Capital Deals (ISBN 1597010987). It is a 100 minute DVD that has a lot of different material in it that is critical for doing venture capital deals. It also covers specific negotiation strategies and roles and motivations for each key deal participant - which is not covered in this book or the authors other book (Term Sheets & Valuations).

Very Disappointed.......2006-05-15

After enjoying his first book, Term Sheets and Valuations, I was looking forward to this one. I regret to say that I found it a big waste of time and a bigger waste of money.

It appears as if the marketing of the book by the pblisher sought to take advantage of his first book by raising the price by 500%, giving the impression that this book was better or more comprehensive. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

Solid reference for entrepreneurs.......2005-12-29

'Deal Terms' is a solid reference for entrepreneurs with 'need-to-read' (as opposed to 'nice-to-read') information regarding venture financing deals. I find Wilmerding's interviews with various relevant players (e.g. legal counsellor, venture capitalist, entrepreneur) to be a good differentiator of the book; the quick analysis of actual term sheet is also pragmatic. The 'Valuation' section is relatively generic & is the weaker part of the book.

Helpful, practical, and brilliant!.......2004-05-07

I recently finished your book "Deal Terms" and found it extremely
helpful as we are looking into our first round of financing.

This book showed me numerous issues that I would have definitely overlooked or simply not thought of.

Thanks for writing Deal Terms. Definitely an invaluable
reference for anyone in business!

Grande Expectations: A Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock
Average customer rating:

Steve Forbes Loved It and You Will, Too.

Otherwise dry material rendered frappalicious

Cramer Recommended It?!

Aimed at beginners

Grande Explanation

Grande Expectations: A Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock
Karen Blumenthal
Manufacturer: Crown Business
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary

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Finding the Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow

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The Dhandho Investor: The Low - Risk Value Method to High Returns

ASIN: 0307339718
Release Date: 2007-04-03

Book Description

Karen Blumenthal, like most people, is mystified by the stock market. Just why is it, she wonders, that seemingly good news can send a stock plummeting and bad news can send it skyrocketing again?

In Grande Expectations, she shows how money is made and lost by following one of America’s hottest growth stocks, Starbucks, through a year of rapid store openings, fancy new drinks, and clever promotions, revealing how the many players—big and small investors, company management, analysts, and the media—propel its shares up and down.

Blumenthal pulls back the curtain on the stock market to expose its quirks and inner workings, from the power of a penny of earnings and the unexpected impact of a stock split to the image-enhancing effects of a brand of bottled water. With a fly-on-the-wall, character-driven narrative, Grande Expectations not only makes investing interesting but also will help you make smarter and savvier investing choices by:

•Understanding how big pension and mutual fund managers decide whether to buy more Starbucks—or dump it

•Seeing the unique ways that analysts and other finance professionals assess an investment—dissecting not only the numbers but also the company’s management, demographics, and global opportunities

•Learning how Starbucks executives manage our expectations and keep excitement percolating about the business—and the stock

•Watching how a stock is traded and how that might affect your buying or selling

•Gleaning how multibillion-dollar private hedge funds make money on infinitesimal changes in a stock’s price

•Entering the dark, strange world of the short sellers

•Realizing how different people can make absolutely opposite bets and all still come out ahead

You’ll come away with new insights into how the stock market really works—the power of expectations, stock buybacks, and profits—and explore Starbucks’ phenomenal growth and whether it is sustainable. By unraveling the market’s mysteries, Grande Expectations shows how investing can be both profitable and understandable. Get ready for the ride of your life—and a lifetime of fruitful stock market success.

Customer Reviews:

Steve Forbes Loved It and You Will, Too........2007-08-04

Steve Forbes reviewed this book and loved it, and I think it appeals equally to people who understand the market well, and those who don't. Blumenthal details all the information you wish you had, but don't have time to gather, when investing in a stock. Mostly, though, it's a fascinating, fun read, and that's the reason to pick it up!

Otherwise dry material rendered frappalicious.......2007-08-04

I seldom go to Starbucks and can rarely stomach lengthy financial analysis, so I never expected to be so consumed by a book that I just happened across and then couldn't put down. As a liberal-arts-type reader, I was as riveted by this utterly charming biography of a stock as I routinely am by a great man's life story. As originally unappetizing to me as the thought of 300 pages detailing a company's year-long stock performance was the sheer pleasure here of following the author's wide-eyed pursuit of answers about why stocks rise and fall. As Ms. Blumenthal chases down a broad swath of individuals to learn all she could about the history and future prospects for Starbucks, I found the questions she put to Howard Schultz and other company execs, to security analysts and fund managers, to small DIY investors, and to many others, were exactly the kind of questions I wanted asked. Assuming you're not already a full-time securities pro, reading this book -- although it won't instantly certify you as a financial guru -- will, for less than the cost of a few macchiatos and frappucinos, make you far wiser about this amazing company and the ways of the market. Concentrating so deeply on one company enables the author to show how stock buybacks, black-box trading operations, analyst reports, and dozens of other abstract concepts actually work in a real-world case history over an extended period. Thus material that would otherwise seem academic and dry becomes far more palatable and understandable. Kudos to Ms. Blumenthal for wonderful reporting and making stock-tracking acutely interesting and intelligible.

Cramer Recommended It?!.......2007-08-03

I am very surprised that Jim Cramer likes this book. There's really nothing to it. If you've owned a few stocks before, and paid attention to them, this book will offer you nothing new.

Aimed at beginners.......2007-06-11

One can see that there is already 40 used books, it's quite impressive for such a "young" book. I think there is a deep misunderstanding about this financial opus; Jim Cramer, I like him very much incidentally, in his review of the book emphasizes that it's gonna be a "in depth" study of how the stock fluctuates month in and month out... it's a lie, as a profesionnal analyst, I did not learn anything and I'll take a bet that people in the institutional world will not either.

As a pro, I was looking forward to reading the chapters titled "investors" and the second one even more "traders". Let me get this straight: the first one digs into the ROE, the P/E and Philip Fisher, quite enthralling for novices but for a financial adviser, this is too simplistic. And the second chapter is mostly about black-boxes and somewhat of a market maker. However, if you want to learn any "trading secret" or a mere "trading idea" out of them, forget it, you assuredly won't.

All in all this is a fun read, entertaining but just interesting for people not knowing anything about the company Starbucks (my case; I know sorry), about its resilience during a stunning bear market or for people not knowing anything about the stock market.

But if you're an institutional analyst, trader or broker, this is a lie by Jim Cramer, the "in-depth" of this book is more in the other reviews above and Jim's.

To wrap things up, there is one thing that is extremely annoying in this book, which has already not much of an exciting style into it per se (this is not a Michael Crichton, that's for sure) someone must talk to the author and tell her about the "present" tense to spice a story up a notch, all the book is written "in the past" and it gives all the more a boring feeling of what could have been a far better book if wrote with the present tense, as it is habitually the case in financial opuses.

5 stars for novices, 2 stars for pros (to read on a plane or on the beach to take a breather). I'm certain that's why there are so many "used" books for sell already. Beginners will love it, seasoned pros will wind up with the fun, only.

Grande Explanation.......2007-05-16

This is a highly readable and interesting story about a cultural phenomena. The author gives us a "year-in-the life" story about Starbucks and its stock price fluctuations, while engaging the reader in behind the scenes details. She has woven a fascinating story without losing the reader to arcane financial jargon. The book is very balanced and a fun read. I highly recommend it -- Steve

Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations (Bigwig Briefs)

Average customer rating:

Short, concise & useful
Good Content, Bad Format
Just what I needed
Check Out Author's DVD as Well - Negotiating Term Sheets
A Must for Term Sheet Analysis and Composition

Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations (Bigwig Briefs)
Alex Wilmerding
Manufacturer: Aspatore Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Deal Terms - The Finer Points of Venture Capital Deal Structures, Valuations, Term Sheets, Stock Options and Getting VC Deals Done (Inside the Minds)
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Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook
Angel Investing: Matching Startup Funds with Startup Companies -- A Guide for Entrepreneurs, Individual Investors, and Venture Capitalists
Venture Capital Investing: The Complete Handbook for Investing in Private Businesses for Outstanding Profits

ASIN: 1587620685

Book Description

Term Sheets & Valuations is the first ever in-depth look at the nuts and buts of terms sheets and valuations. The book, written by leading venture capitalist Alexander Wilmerding of Boston Capital Ventures, covers topics such What is a Term Sheet, How to Examine a Term Sheet, A Section-by-Section View of a Term Sheet, Valuations, What Every Entrepreneur & Executive Needs to Know About Term Sheets, Valuation Parameters, and East Coast Versus West Coast Rules. In addition, the book includes an actual term sheet from a leading law firm with line by line descriptions of each clause, what can/should be negotiated, and the important points to pay attention to. A must have book for any executive, entrepreneur, or financial professional.

Praise for Term Sheets & Valuations:

"This primer should be required reading for every entrepreneur. It is short, authoritative and worth its weight in gold." - Murray Low, Executive Director, Columbia Business School, Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship

"An invaluable resource for executives and financial professionals." - Graham D.S. Anderson, General Partner, EuclidSR Partners

"A valuable resource for entrepreneurs..." - Jeffrey Donohue, Esq.

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Customer Reviews:

Short, concise & useful.......2007-08-20

This short text is concise, easily read and a most useful tool. If you need to understand term sheets, the short time it will take to read and digest this volume will be well invested.

Term Sheets & Valuations is also an excellent source of reference. It gives an accurate and authoritative view of the subject to hand.

Good Content, Bad Format.......2007-03-06

Term Sheets and Valuations analyzes the finer details of VC term sheets within a framework of what are "investor favorable", "middle-of-the-road", or "company favorable" elements. While this format is helpful, the excerpts are sometimes a bit hard to follow. Not being an attorney, I found this a somewhat arduous read, especially for such a short book.

A better format would have been to include three separate term sheets properly marked up to highlight key differences. This would have required four documents: the book and three separate term sheets. Despite the increased printing costs, it would have been well worth it.

Another problem with the book is the lack of valuation information. Given the title, I would have expected extensive valuation examples. There really aren't any, sadly. This appears to have been done for extreme brevity.

The author does deserve credit for distilling a subject into a rather brief text. Given the limited population that would truly be interested in the nuances of term sheets, his attempt at this book was rather admirable.

Just what I needed.......2006-06-28

This book is a quick read and addressed the outages in my understanding of how to value companies and structure rounds of funding.

Check Out Author's DVD as Well - Negotiating Term Sheets.......2006-05-17

This was a really great resource - but even better is author's new product called Negotiating Term Sheets and Valuations in Venture Capital Deals (ISBN 1597010987). It is a 100 minute DVD that has a lot of different material in it that is critical for term sheets and valuations. It also covers specific negotiation strategies and roles and motivations for each key deal participant - which is not covered in the book.

A Must for Term Sheet Analysis and Composition.......2006-05-15

A great book for understanding term sheets and a much needed book for entrepreneurs, who really do not have many good books to choose from.

Alex provides a concise easy-to-follow explanation of the variability of term sheet design. I would recommend this book be purchased not with his other one, Deal Terms (because it is really terrible), but with what I feel is the best book for entrepreneurs written as far as the quality of content,

The Startup Company Bible for Entrepreneurs (Stathis).

This book tells it ALL, including how to understand term sheets and much more.

Average customer rating:

A bit hard to understand
This is a Terrific Resource for Practitioners Not Investors
Super
An Excellent Private Equity Valuation Primer
Good technique, directed at the professional practitioner

Valuing A Business, 4th Edition
Shannon P. Pratt , Robert F. Reilly , and Robert P. Schweihs
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0071356150

Book Description

First published in 1981, Valuing a Business is today the world's most widely followed valuation reference. As more professional associations than ever offer valuation education and credentials, this Fourth Eidtion - with 10 new chapters that significantly expand the book's scope - promises to appeal to an even broader market. This easy-to-use reference features increased emphasis on vlauation court cases and decisions; new information on arbitration and mediation; updated data on stock option valuation; and much more.

Download Description

This easy-to-use reference features increased emphasis on valuation court cases and decisions; new information on arbitration and mediation; updated data on stock option valuation; and much more.

Customer Reviews:

A bit hard to understand.......2004-12-02

I had an older edition of this book, which wasn't very helpful, so I bought the new one hoping it was an improvement, but came away rather disappointed because, for an instructional manual, this one is hard to follow. Apparently, the authors have been in the valuation business for a long time, but it's not always easy to translate experience effectively into words. For most, this is a how-to project with potentially big consequences, so the instructions should be more clear than this. I liked "Unlocking the Value of Your Business" as an alternative. Once I read that book, I understood better what these guys were talking about.

This is a Terrific Resource for Practitioners Not Investors.......2004-09-16

I am a lawyer who has tried valuation cases and this book is a terrific resource for valuation experts and attorneys. I used it to defend and to attack witnesses. It is respected. It is used at the Federal Judicial Center as training for judges on these issues. It is not at all appropriate for people who are trying to value companies for investment purposes.

Super.......2003-01-08

This book, guide, reference, ... or what ever you name it. is essential for all business, financial and investment guides.

An Excellent Private Equity Valuation Primer.......2002-04-08

I have found Mr. Pratt's book to be an outstanding and practical general reference guide to valuing privately-held businesses. Due to the book's breadth of material and balanced focus on both the science and art of valuation, I have found "Valuing A Business" to be an excellent professional reference for anyone entering the field of business valuation. I highly recommend it.

In addition to the common "science side" valuation techniques, issues, and approaches that are found in many valuation textbooks, Pratt provides unique, valuable insight into the "art side" of valuation. The book also includes real life project execution considerations for litigation support, expert witness testimony, and taxation. "Valuing A Business" offers solid information to assist a practitioner in building a quality framework for conducting a comprehensive private company valuation.

Good technique, directed at the professional practitioner.......2001-10-18

I take issue with the reviewer who suggested that Tom Copeland/McKinsey's book "Valuation" is better than this one or is more directed at valuaing big businesses. ... On the other hand, it should be said that valuation techniques do not differ between big companies and small companies (especially if big/small companies are publically traded). Valuation techniques vary depending on (a) what sort of asset is being valued (public equity, vs. private equity, vs. business assets as a whole, etc) and (b) why valuation is being done (for M&A, litigation between business partners, divorce, ESOPs, for equity investment/divestment). If an investor is valuing a $50 Billion public company and a $50 million public company, the technique used for both is (probably) the same.

If anything, this book does an excellent job in reminding us of the diversity of valuation techniques in use, and the diversity of reasons for doing valuations. Given the frequency with which privately held companies are bought, one would think that knowing how to value companies whose stock is not publically traded is useful for general businesspeople, not just accountants and attorneys. But if you absolutely insist that you just want to know how to value publically traded companies and don't give a hoot for calculating "private equity discounts" or "minority shareholder discounts", then I would recommend Aswath Damodaran's books "Damodaran on Valuation", "The Dark Side of Valuation" or "Investment Valuation". Damodaran, professor of Finance at NYU, actually uses the same techniques taught here, but applied to public equity investing and with different names (for example, what is called the "Market approach" here is just what Damodaran calls "relative valuation" in a different context).

Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Controlling Risk
Average customer rating:

One to add to your reading list

Practical approach and mathematically rigorous at the same time

Theoretical framework with no practical examples.

This is the seminal text for Quantitative Finance

Very boring and dry

Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Controlling Risk
Richard C. Grinold , and Ronald N. Kahn
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Heard on the Street: Quantitative Questions from Wall Street Job Interviews

ASIN: 0070248826

Book Description

"This new edition of Active Portfolio Management continues the standard of excellence established in the first edition, with new and clear insights to help investment professionals."

-William E. Jacques, Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Martingale Asset Management.

"Active Portfolio Management offers investors an opportunity to better understand the balance between manager skill and portfolio risk. Both fundamental and quantitative investment managers will benefit from studying this updated edition by Grinold and Kahn."

-Scott Stewart, Portfolio Manager, Fidelity Select Equity ® Discipline

Co-Manager, Fidelity Freedom ® Funds.

"This Second edition will not remain on the shelf, but will be continually referenced by both novice and expert. There is a substantial expansion in both depth and breadth on the original. It clearly and concisely explains all aspects of the foundations and the latest thinking in active portfolio management."

-Eric N. Remole, Managing Director, Head of Global Structured Equity, Credit Suisse Asset Management.

Mathematically rigorous and meticulously organized, Active Portfolio Management broke new ground when it first became available to investment managers in 1994. By outlining an innovative process to uncover raw signals of asset returns, develop them into refined forecasts, then use those forecasts to construct portfolios of exceptional return and minimal risk, i.e., portfolios that consistently beat the market, this hallmark book helped thousands of investment managers. Active Portfolio Management, Second Edition, now sets the bar even higher. Like its predecessor, this volume details how to apply economics, econometrics, and operations research to solving practical investment problems, and uncovering superior profit opportunities. It outlines an active management framework that begins with a benchmark portfolio, then defines exceptional returns as they relate to that benchmark. Beyond the comprehensive treatment of the active management process covered previously, this new edition expands to cover asset allocation, long/short investing, information horizons, and other topics relevant today. It revisits a number of discussions from the first edition, shedding new light on some of today's most pressing issues, including risk, dispersion, market impact, and performance analysis, while providing empirical evidence where appropriate. The result is an updated, comprehensive set of strategic concepts and rules of thumb for guiding the process of-and increasing the profits from-active investment management.

Customer Reviews:

One to add to your reading list.......2007-06-30

I know many have this book and have never read it. Others read this book but never really understand it. However, if you can read it and understand it, it can offer a powerful tool for how to allocate capital. It actually is the basis for most indexing and quantitative methodologies. When applied to fundemental approaches to investment it can be quite powerful.

Sadly, though not enough money managers embrace what this book is trying to say with regards to risk and return.

Practical approach and mathematically rigorous at the same time.......2006-02-01

Excellent book for whom is looking for a practical approach that at the same time is presented through a rigorous mathematical methodology. The book is absolutely superior over the academic textbooks that usually limit themselves to CAPM and efficient market theory. Grinold and Kahn go much forward and at the same time had managed to clearly and meticulously show the CAPM model, its limitations and the more sophisticated tools developed from it. Beside of showing the active way of managing a portfolio, the serious mathematical presentations through which the different theories such as CAPM are described are very convincing of how difficult it could be to beat the market.

Theoretical framework with no practical examples........2005-01-20

There is important information in this book but most of us need to see numerical examples to reinforce theoretical concepts. This book really comes up short in this area. It provides some discussion with the formulas/equations it presents but is very incomplete in terms of worked out examples. Yes, including worked out examples might might mean a book three times as long, but the book would then be many, many times more useful to practitioners.

As it currently stands the book can only benefit the super-genius-theoretical types who do not need to see examples to understand OR someone who ALREADY really understands the concepts.

The book rather frequently presents variables or constants without explicitly defining them for the reader (it assumes we know what they mean from the accompanying discussion).

The book gives exercises, but without answers what good are these?

The one thing the book does is make you realize there is a lot you do not know. You can find ideas in portfolio management that exist by reading this book but if you are at all like me you are going to have to look elsewhere for the answers. I have had better luck with Google searches for stuff like Style Analysis.

The book shows how smart the authors are: they know stuff that must of us do not. Unfortunately this is the feeling I get as I read sections of their book. They intend to keep it this way. Bottom line: the book fails to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

This is the seminal text for Quantitative Finance.......2004-11-11

If you work for one of the top alpha quant shops (Barclays, Goldman, etc.), this text is a the proverbial must read. These are the guys that essentially invented quantitative finance in its modern form, building upon the [only somewhat applicable] concepts of Sharpe and Rosenberg and demonstrating how they can be harnassed to drive alpha. Anybody who has given this text a poor review obviously doesn't work in quantitative finance (chances are they're merely stock-pickers). If you want to understand how to drive alpha and beat the market, this text goes a lot further than explaining the simple concepts of information ratio and tracking error; instead, this book touches on the beauty of multi-factor models and covariance risk management.

Very boring and dry.......2004-10-05

This book is a funny phenomenon in itself: it seems that every portfolio manager keeps a copy on her desk, but nobody I've talked to likes the book, or has even really read it. I read it and had to struggle hard to go from one page to the next. It's one of the WORST books I've ever read in any field. The book attempts to give the reader a comprehensive overview of the portfolio management discipline. Unfortunately, it's extremely dry, to the point of boring the reader to death. A lot of pages are also wasted on topics of dubious value, while important subjects like global management is treated lightly. I highly recommend against this book. It's a waste of money.

Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond

Average customer rating:

Exceptional Addition for Any Investor
Must-read for value investors!
A MUST READ
the most comprehensive review on value
Must-read for serious investors of any stripe

Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond
Bruce C. N. Greenwald , Judd Kahn , Paul D. Sonkin , and Michael van Biema
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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You Can Be a Stock Market Genius: Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits
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Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings

ASIN: 0471381985

Book Description

From the "guru to Wall Street's gurus" comes the fundamental techniques of value investing and their applications
Bruce Greenwald is one of the leading authorities on value investing. Some of the savviest people on Wall Street have taken his Columbia Business School executive education course on the subject. Now this dynamic and popular teacher, with some colleagues, reveals the fundamental principles of value investing, the one investment technique that has proven itself consistently over time. After covering general techniques of value investing, the book proceeds to illustrate their applications through profiles of Warren Buffett, Michael Price, Mario Gabellio, and other successful value investors. A number of case studies highlight the techniques in practice.
Bruce C. N. Greenwald (New York, NY) is the Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management at Columbia University. Judd Kahn, PhD (New York, NY), is a member of Morningside Value Investors. Paul D. Sonkin (New York, NY) is the investment manager of the Hummingbird Value Fund. Michael van Biema (New York, NY) is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University.

Customer Reviews:

Exceptional Addition for Any Investor.......2007-07-07

Fantastic summary of modern value investing. Greenwald looks at the discipline with the critical eye of a professor, making it more informative than many other books about the subject. Even seasoned value investors will learn from this book.

Must-read for value investors!.......2007-07-01

What I Liked About It
* Details several valuation methods that I haven't seen in other non-academic, mainstream investing books.
* Several real-world examples to apply valuation methods
* Great treatment of brands vs. franchises

What Needed Work
* Various investor profiles unnecessarily fill the 2nd half of the book.
* Attempts at quantifying "franchise" felt a bit forced.

Greenwald's book ranks at the very top of my investing bookshelf. I read this after having read Graham, Greenblatt, Klarman, Lynch, P. Fisher, Cramer (yes, that Cramer!), Dorsey, Buffett, and Browne among others. Amazingly, this book broached a number of topics not covered by those prominent authors. As such, this book is required reading for the discerning investor.

The most important concepts this book gave me were valuation methods based on net asset value (NAV) and earnings power value (EPV). Before this, I had trouble valuing companies that didn't generate steady cash flow or have commodity assets. Now I have more angles from which to examine a prospect and find undervalued companies besides running a DCF analysis. We've heard about past opportunities where you could have bought a company like McDonalds for the price of its real estate and gotten the business for free. Greenwald shows you how to find these opportunities using his asset valuation methods. He also gives you the tools to fairly value "tech" companies (or any enterprise with heavy intangible capital). Less convincing is his discussion of earnings power value but nonetheless, it's still helpful to be able to examine a company's earnings ability.

Greenwald also spends time discussing problems with discount cash flow analysis (DCF) as well as franchises. While his thoughts on these subjects were thought-provoking, I don't completely agree with his conclusions.

On DCF, Greenwald says that trying to project future growth rates 5-10 years forward is folly and will distort your DCF analysis. While he is right that future growth projections are problematic, that doesn't mean DCF isn't helpful for individual investors. Greenwald concedes that his preferred methodologies require, in some instances, in-depth knowledge of the business and industry of the company being examined. The non-professional (me!) may not have this expertise and any estimates of asset worth or capital costs would be just as faulty as analyst growth estimates. In fact, an adjusted future growth rate derived from a number of industry-knowledgeable analysts may be more generally accurate (if imprecise).

The main knock against the book is the whole second half consisting of eight investor profiles. There's nothing wrong with them per se except that they are in the book at all. If I had wanted a book on famous value investors, I would have picked up something by Kirk Kazanjian. The chapter on Warren Buffett is almost exclusively quotations taken from freely available public reports and Seth Klarman has written his own book on investing.

I've written a more-indepth review at my enlightened-american website but in summary, my advice is to soak in the 1st half of the book and skip the 2nd half entirely. Dig into an annual report instead and start applying what Greenwald's shown you.

A MUST READ.......2006-11-13

find weak areas with strong fundamentals is secret according to this book. this is a good combo to Investing Without Losing (ISBN: 0978834607 NOT on amazn, on other stores), one is about the concept and the latter is about execution

the most comprehensive review on value.......2006-09-20

In short, this book is grounded on economics and common sense. It summarizes "the intelligent investor", "security analysis", and the modern books on Buffett pretty well (there are other paths to heaven besides Buffett's). Its verbiage is beautifully chosen and a joy to read, especially for avid value investors. Best of all it is a scholarly work - if you're sick and tired of the commercial investing books that flood bookstores, buy this book.

Must-read for serious investors of any stripe.......2006-08-12

A must-read for investors of any stripe, growth or value. This book, written by a couple of the most popular professors at Columbia Business School, explains the innovations in the field of value investing as practiced by some of the most successful investors in the field. (fair disclosure: I will be taking courses from them in 2007) This book successfully bridges the gap between the traditional Graham & Dodd style of value investing to what works today. Although it's a paperback, it's written with the density of a textbook. The writing style is not light, and the actual meat of the book takes some time to wade through. If you don't have some experience in accounting or corporate finance, then Joel Greenblatt's The Little Book That Beats the Market is good to read first.

The substance of this book is a process for modern value investing: value investing is not investing in lousy companies just because they appear cheap. The authors also teach a structured way to value a company. Finally, the authors address how to value growth.

First, before reading this book I had the mistaken impression that value investing was all about investing in the ugliest, least interesting company you could find just because it had a low P/E ratio. I was completely wrong! (Maybe I have attended too many stock pitch sessions and heard too many poultry stocks and encyclopedia companies get pitched.) Modern value investing, according the authors: "When B. Graham went scouring financial statements looking for his net-nets, it did not concern him that he may have known little about the industry in which he found his targets. All he was concerned with were asset values and a margin of safety by that measure. A contemporary value investor had better be able to identify and understand the sources of a company's franchise and the nature of its competitive advantages. Otherwise he or she is just another punter, taking a flier rather than making an investment." What a breath of fresh air to read this passage.

Second, this book lays out a structured way to value a company by first looking at reproduction costs of assets, then earnings power, and finally the value of profitable growth. I, like the authors, find traditional DCF valuations to be plagued by false precision. The authors' more practical method starts by adjusting the balance GAAP balance sheet to calculate the cost of the assets for a potential business entrant. Next, the company is valued based on the earnings generates consistently, assuming no growth. A key insight is the value of the franchise: the difference between asset value and Earnings Power Value is the value created by a company that has significant competitive advantage. Last, the value of profitable growth is considered.

As a self-admitted recovering growth stock addict, I learned from this book that value investors are skeptical about growth for two reasons. One reason is that it is so hard to predict, but more important, many times growth is not worth much. Unless the return on capital (ROC) of the company is higher than the cost of capital, growth does not create value. (I am a slow learner; Greenblatt's example in The Little Book That Beats the Market of opening an additional gum store is even clearer to me.) The growth matrix and formulas in the book were a revelation to me. The surprising thing is how little multiple expansion a stock deserves based on growth. Unless a company truly has a franchise, expanding into other areas and "diversifying" the business often destroys value. And growth for growth's sake will not make a stock go up.

This book brings value investing into the modern stock market. Modern value investors still use traditional valuation principles in a structured way, but they also consider the value of growth and the attractiveness of the business. What a relief, I not restricted to buying typewriter and pay phone stocks! The authors quote Warren Buffett: It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation

Average customer rating:

The Best book in Fundamental Analysis
Great Text BUT no access to the site materials
Good Text, Horrible Service
Incomplete

Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation
Stephen Penman
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition
Applied Equity Analysis: Stock Valuation Techniques for Wall Street Professionals
Financial Reporting and Analysis (3rd Edition)
Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset, Second Edition
Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition)

ASIN: 0073127132

Book Description

This book describes valuation as an exercise in financial statement analysis. Students learn to view a firm through its financial statements and to carry out the appropriate financial statement analysis to value the firm's debt and equity. The book takes an activist approach to investing, showing how the analyst challenges the current market price of a share by analyzing the fundamentals. With a careful assessment of accounting quality, accounting comes to life as it is integrated with the modern theory of finance to develop practical analysis and valuation tools for active investing.

Customer Reviews:

The Best book in Fundamental Analysis.......2007-09-27

This is an excelente book in Fundamental & Valuation reading, The idea of The author is that reformulation on the tradicional statement must be done for investor propose. He do it, and he teach how to do the work in a eassy form. But first of it, he teach about the fundamental essential and he use value drivers for analysis and estimation value.
The author thinks and demostrated that the Fundamental model are much better than other model of valuation like discount Free Cash flow.
In a line of Graham, Dodds, The fundamental analysis of this book is very deep in concept that I founded very usefull. IS a best book than other traditional. I think that de exercise present in the book must have the answer in a internet site, If this is done, dont doubt:It will be The best book in Fundamental an valuation.

Great Text BUT no access to the site materials.......2007-09-11

great text but shame on the publisher not providing access to the solutions of the materials inside the book.

Good Text, Horrible Service.......2007-07-29

This is such an excellent text. McGraw Hill has to provide access to the solutions so that individual investors who are trying to teach themselves can learn the material. This is ludicrous. It stinks.

Incomplete.......2007-05-13

The book itself is great. I bought it with the idea that I would read it and teach myself the material since completing an MBA two years ago. I was denied access to solutions for the exercises and other resources reserved for instructors and students in degree programs. All information provided to instructors was denied to me by the publisher. For the money spent on this volume, all of the educational resources should be made available either through instructors in formalized degree programs or by some other means to people like myself not in degree programs. Otherwise, this text should not be made available to the general public on Amazon. That stated, the book itself is superb...if you want to read it like a novel.

Valuation for Mergers, Buyouts, and Restructuring (Wiley Finance)

Average customer rating:

Hard but very comprenhensive and useful
Planet Best
For those who love going into the detail...
OK but very technical
Purely for Reference

Valuation for Mergers, Buyouts, and Restructuring (Wiley Finance)
Enrique R. Arzac
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Applied Mergers and Acquisitions (Wiley Finance)
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition
The Art of M&A Due Diligence
Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel: A Guide for Business Professionals
Harvard Business Review on Mergers & Acquisitions

ASIN: 0471644447

Book Description

When should you acquire a target or enter a new business? How do you go about structuring and valuing leveraged buyout transactions? What do you do id the application of the weighted average cost of capital approach is not correct? Answers to these commonly encountered valuation problems and more are given right here in this complete valuation toolkit for mergers, buyouts, and restructuring. Enrique Arzac, an internationally recognized authority on the subject, provides an up-to-date, comprehensive synthesis of current valuation theory and practice, including free cash flow valuation, financing and valuation of leveraged buyouts, real option analysis for entry and exit decisions, contract design to resolve disagreements about value, and the valuation of special offer structures.

Customer Reviews:

Hard but very comprenhensive and useful .......2007-06-03

This book is a must for anyone who desires to improve her valuation and modeling skills.
It includes well detailed examples of LBO deal, which is quite rare in the literature.
The computation of the wacc is very comprehensive (may be too much) but the reader does not need to understand it to benefit from the other valuable chapters and demonstrations.

Planet Best.......2006-11-22

I have read many many books on Valuation for investment banking purposes. Many of them have good theories and decent number crunching. But this is the best one in regard technical aspects of finance. It's not for everyone. The book really is for practioner and MBA students who want go ahead of their peers. If you are through with this book nobody can beat you in valuation world.

Enrique I would really want you to cover Project Finance in your next addition.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and liked the technical cocenpts especially the explanation about fomulas and derivations at the end of the book. Moreover the book is absolutely to the point and covers analytical part of Valution for M&A, LBO and Restructuring.

Great Work Enrique.

Manu

For those who love going into the detail..........2006-06-20

This is one of the best books I have read to date on Valuation. It spanks various methodologies and speaks to their differences. It goes into the detail and stays there to provide the depth necessary to get a intuative understanding. WARNING: not for those who do not like math. You can follow the derivations and I found it very good practice and reinforcement to learning the concepts.

Buy it and try it on a company in the news.

Cool!

OK but very technical.......2006-03-03

Overall, the book covers relevant M&A material but it's difficult to read. Coming from a finance background, I was looking for a reference book to be used at work. There are other books that are more user-friendly. Recommendation: get Applied Mergers & Acquisitions from Wiley Finance instead; same topics but a pleasure to read.

Purely for Reference.......2006-01-14

As an M&A finance practitioner, I am torn between giving this book a 3-star or 4-star rating. As many reviewers have noted, this is structured to be a reference book. There is more math than is typically needed or used in most small or medium-sized transactions, and there is very little introductory material for the uninitiated to get their bearings. Instead, the books delves straight into valuation exercises that are at times even more difficult than what I have encountered in the profession. The examples, while numerous and varied, are often reviewed much too quickly, and occasionally with so many permutations and small digressions that it is difficult to keep track of the purpose of the original endeavor. And as good students know, it is very hard to remember how to do something when you do not know *why* you are doing it. As such, it is difficult to recommend this book with much enthusiasm to anyone who does not at least have a few transactions under their belt because as a general guide it does not at all do the trick.

However, for more experienced users, it can come in handy, although I will still have to say that information is unnecessarily difficult to find. I feel like this book is so dense that it would be much more effective in an electronic (and hence, searchable) version. That being said, I really enjoyed a few chapters, including Chapter 9, which had some excellent examples of the effect different tax treatments have on a transaction. It came in very handy for a deal I was working on where I had to deal with NOLs.

Average customer rating:

Heir to the Throne
Best Fundamental Analysis Textbook
Easily the best book in the field...
A Banking Professional
Excellent!

Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation
Stephen Penman
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Applied Equity Analysis: Stock Valuation Techniques for Wall Street Professionals
Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset, Second Edition
Creative Cash Flow Reporting: Uncovering Sustainable Financial Performance
Analysis of Financial Statements
Financial Statement Analysis: A Practitioner's Guide, 3rd Edition

ASIN: 007253317X

Book Description

Penman's Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation 2/e focuses on the output of financial statements, not the input. As such, the book asks what financial statements tell you, not how they are prepared. The idea is to get students to see accounting "working." The book focuses on using financial statements in valuation. The text takes the approach that the best way to accurately value a firm is to look at the future earnings of the firm. The main pretext of the book is that financial statement analysis and valuation analysis are inextricably entwined: valuation is an exercise in financial statement analysis. Financial statement analysis is directed by the need to get information for valuation. Accordingly, the book brings finance and accounting concepts together. The book stresses concepts, but the idea is to show how to move from concepts to practice.

Customer Reviews:

Heir to the Throne.......2006-06-23

For decades Graham and Dodd's "Security Analysis" has been the Bible of Value Investing. But now Stephen Penman, Columbia professor who teaches what Graham did, stakes his claim as a truly worthy successor, with this textbook.

I felt a profound expansion of my understanding of fundamental analysis when I read Security Analysis. Penman's textbook is the only other book that has provided me with a similar deepening of my understanding. Indeed, if Graham were still around, I am quite sure this is the book he would have written.

If you seek a strong foundation and understanding of how accounting information and valuation work together, there is no better book i have come across. All the other texts seem to pale in comparison.

Here's a small extract:
"A valuation model not only tells you how to think about the value generation in the future, but it also tells you how to account for the value generation. A valuation model is really a model of proforma accounting for the future. Should you account for the future in terms of dividends? should you account for the future in terms of cash flows? Or should you use accrual accounting for the future? You see, then, that accounting and valuation are very much alike. Valuation is a matter of accounting for value."

Statements like these will give a dedicated value investor a high. If you are one, make sure u read this book!

Best Fundamental Analysis Textbook .......2004-09-20

I must first disclose that I am a student in Professor Penman's class at Columbia, therefore I may have some insights and access to items that other readers may not have. Nonetheless, this textbook is amazing! I am in my last 2 electives before graduating from a dual MBA program at Columbia/LBS, and this textbook and class are "pulling everything together." I have taken 5 finance courses and 3 accounting classes and thus, have a pretty good background in finance/accounting, despite being a physician with no practical experience in the financial services industry (yet).

THE BOOK: What I have found different about this text book and every other finance/valuation textbook I have used in my studies including Brealey and Myers (the finance bible)is that it handles both the broad, conceptual aspects and the nuts-and-bolts valuation tools extremely well. Penman is able to start with a broad concept and then introduce valuation tools/techniques that build on these concepts. This makes it easier to understand and remember the valuation process (at least for me). The graphs and diagrams are equally helpful (for a change) and re-enforce the textual information. In contrast, the McKinsey valuation textbook (bible #2) is good on the conceptual aspects, but lacks tremendously in the detailed analysis sections. The additional workbook for the McKinsey book fails miserably as well. This textbook has it all, and provides an excellent framework and tool set to enter the financial services industry.

Easily the best book in the field..........2004-08-23

Penman's book is rapidly becoming THE textbook for MBA courses in fundamental analysis and equity valuation, and rightly so. The approach he suggests just plain makes good economic sense, and he is able to offer a method that allows the users of financial statements to get to the core of how economic profits are created, and perhaps most importantly, how those profits should be valued.

In the end, of course, no one has all of the answers -- a major weakness in the book, in my opinion, is a less-than-complete discussion of the issues surrounding the determination of the elusive "cost of operations". He rather vaguely suggests the application of a basic statistical method that I won't go into here (read the book and see what you think!), but the discussion is a little thin and will hopefully be beefed up in future editions. But, hey, like I said: no one has really cracked the case on this perennial grey area, and Penman's ideas are as good as any I've encountered.

Again, though, this book provides the reader with some rather powerful tools with which to tackle financial statements. My only regret is that I bought the softcover international edition to save some cash -- I can honestly say that this is the only textbook I've ever purchased where I wished I had picked up the hardcover edition. Don't make the same mistake. This is a text you will want to refer to time and time again, so just go ahead and buy the real, hardcover deal. I know I'll be picking up my own hardcover copy once the next edition is released.

Professor Penman, if you happen to read the reviews here, thanks for the effort and please keep striving to improve on this landmark text!!

A Banking Professional.......2004-07-13

Very much thorough and practical point of view. Awesome! An art piece of integrating in-depth accounting and valuation!

Excellent!.......2003-08-22

I've studied innumerable books on Security Analysis, but have yet to find one that satisfied my desire to fully integrate financial statement analysis with valuation--until now! Penman's book does an excellent job of presenting all the various valuation methods and critiquing the strengths and weaknesses of each one. He does a superb job of showing the relationship between cash flow and accrual accounting and how each relates to valuation. He also shows how corporate strategy affects both the financials and valuation and how to do decent pro formas. For the studious stock analyst, this book is well worth the extra time required to digest its many insights. I rate this book second only to the original Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis.

Applied Equity Analysis: Stock Valuation Techniques for Wall Street Professionals

Average customer rating:

great book for those in finance
for SELL-SIDE analysts only
One of the Best
Probably the best
Very readable, very insightful, and extremely practical

Applied Equity Analysis: Stock Valuation Techniques for Wall Street Professionals
James English
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset, Second Edition
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Security Analysis on Wall Street: A Comprehensive Guide to Today's Valuation Methods, Univ. Edition
Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation
Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation

ASIN: 0071360514

Book Description

Applied Equity Analysis treats stock valuation as a practical, hands-on tool rather than a vague, theoretical exercise—and covers the entire valuation process from financial statement analysis through the final investment recommendation. Its integrated approach to valuation builds viable connections between a firm’s competitive situation and the ultimate behavior of its common stock. Techniques explained include EVA, newer hybrid valuation techniques, and relative multiple analysis.

Download Description

Applied Equity Analysis treats stock valuation as a practical, hands-on tool rather than a vague, theoretical exercise--and covers the entire valuation process from financial statement analysis through the final investment recommendation.

Customer Reviews:

great book for those in finance.......2006-06-20

This book is great if you're in the field of finance. This is not for the average consumer looking for investment advice. I've been in corporate financial planning and analyis for the past five years and always wondered how equity analysts built their models. This books will give you insight into their thinking and also give enough detail to build your own models. I would have rated it five stars if the book included a CD with his examples in Excel. The author does have website where you can download sample models.

for SELL-SIDE analysts only.......2006-01-14

I bought this book based on the strong reviews as a complement to Damodaran's classic on valuation, but felt disappointed.

To qualify my comments: First, I am not a sell-side analyst, and secondly, I haven't finished the book. After about 50 pages, I threw in the towel.

My first stylistic objection to the book is its low content density. There is tremendous repetition and examples are trotted out in excruciating detail, even where the conclusions are fairly obvious. For example, on p. 34: "At competitive equilibrium, the firm can identify no incremental investment opportunities likely to generate returns in excess of capital costs. Competitive equilibrium is often defined as a condition in which investment opportunities generate returns equal to capital costs, but existing investments continue to earn abnormal rates." To me these two sentences are already redundant. But in case you still didn't get it, further DOWN on the SAME PAGE: "...This situation is called economic equilibrium, or economic parity. What does equilibrium mean? When returns are forced down to capital costs, then economic rents and/or abnormal earnings disappear and no further incentive to enter the business exists".

But the most frequently repeated point of the first two chapters, is best summed up on p. 19: "As I say many times in the coming pages [and he's not kidding, there], equity analysis is not prophecy; it's opinion. It was never meant to be objective description, but it is strong advocacy." If you're the sell-side analyst, having to "dress up a pig" to help your firm gain some banking business, this book might offer some ideas. But where does this leave the consumer of such analysis? "It's the investor's job to 'diversify' by considering a variety of analysts' positions." (p.9)

I think better advice for the investor might be to learn how to perform sound analysis themselves. For that, I recommend Damodaran's book. I lost my faith in this book's intent to provide balanced (let alone predictive) analysis.

One of the Best.......2005-11-01

There are reams and reams of investment valuation books on the market -- that is obvious.

In my opinion, the three no one should be without are Applied Equity Analysis, Stephen Penman's monster tome "financial statements and...", and lastly, Aswath Damadoran's book, "investment valuation."

Most hyperventilating MBAs default to Damadoran; I really enjoy the simplicity behind Applied Equity Analysis.

Caution: Neither of the 3 are what you'd call "light reading."

If you have any money left, honorable mention goes to Cooke's "security analysis on wall street."

Probably the best.......2004-07-15

I've been looking for a practical step by step book on equity analysis from a practitioners viewpoint. This is it. Other books try to take shortcuts. This book does not take short-cuts, but neither is it bogged down with unncessary academic exercises. If you really want to understand how to do valuation and applied equity analysis I can't recommend any book more highly. It is head and shoulders above anything else out there. Penman's book (from Columbia Business School) is also good but it is a VERY serious and weighty book that probably should only be attacked after you have read this one. Get this book by English and you will not be sorry. I have spent way too much time reading hundreds of other books that weren't nearly as educational. Again, however, it is only for the serious investor.

Very readable, very insightful, and extremely practical.......2001-09-23

James English's "Applied Equity Analysis" is a how-to manual on evaluating stocks based on his 20 years of experience at JP Morgan. The book is very well-written and readable since the author employs plain english (no pun intended) to make his three major points: 1) accounting numbers--while by no means perfect--are excellent tools in evaluating stocks, 2) accounting-based stock valuation is superior to (but does not neccessarily supplant) cash flows, and 3) competition ensures that eye-popping financial performance doesn't last forever.

Contrary to another reviewer, English employs excellent examples to clarify and explain his points. Some examples: Gateway 2000's earnings history was used to explain how to find and interpret non-recurring items (NRI) on financial statements. Ratio analysis was demonstrated by looking at the PC industry in 1998. Emerson Electric was the company chosen to show why mature companies were still good buys. Many other examples abound, and English does a successful job in tying their relevance to his arguements.

But successful use of examples is not just the only strength of the book. The author also tackles a range of topics complete with insightful and clear discussions: the flaws of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), Economic Value Added (EVA), financial statement analysis, fundamental analysis, etc.

A quick glance at the table of contents below gives you an idea of the scope of English's book. I highly recommend this book to not just Wall Street analysts, anyone who is interested in finding fundamental value in evaluating stocks instead of following the crowd.

Pt. 1 Getting Started
Ch. 1 A Day in the Life
Ch. 2 Fundamentals of Equity Valuation
Ch. 3 Strategy and Competition I: The Firm's External Environment
Ch. 4 Strategy and Competition II: The Firm's Internal Competitive Resources
Ch. 5 Fundamentals of Stock Behavior
Pt. 2 The Basic Tools
Ch. 6 Reading a Financial Statement: The Accuracy, Sustainability, and Predictability of Financial Information
Appendix 6-1 Gateway Financial Statements
Ch. 7 Reading a Financial Statement: the Composition of Returns
Appendix 7-1 Comparative Financial Analysis: Personal Computer Industry
Ch. 8 Reading a Financial Statement: Early-Stage Companies and Investment Capacity
Ch. 9 Reading a Financial Statement: Later-Stage Companies and the Transition to Maturity
Ch. 10 Economic Value Added: An Alternative to Traditional Analysis Techniques
Appendix 10-1 Gateway's Cost of Capital
Pt. 3 Financial Models
Ch. 11 Financial Modeling: Base Case Assumptions and Model Design
Appendix 11-1 Dell Computer Corporation Consolidated Statement of Income
Ch. 12 Financial Modeling: The Income Statement and Balance Sheet
Ch. 13 Financial Modeling: The Statement of Cash Flows
Pt. 4 Equity Valuation
Ch. 14 Valuation: Foundations and Fundamentals
Ch. 15 Combat Finance: Relative Methods and Companion Variable Models
Ch. 16 Hybrid Valuation Techniques
Ch. 17 The Quirky Price/Earnings Ratio
Ch. 18 Valuation of Speculative Stocks
Ch. 19 Equity Analysis and Business Combinations
Pt. 5 Getting It Down on Paper
Ch. 20 Financial Writing: Don't Bury the Lead
Bibliography
Index

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