Stock Market

This classic book secured Benjamin Graham's status as a Wall street immortal. the carefully honed methods for finding undervalued stocks and bonds he described here have never been equaled, and have already outlived their author by more than 20 years. Even as Security Analysis has gone through five editions and nearly a million copes, you can learn time-tested investment secrets and strategies by going back to the source - THE ORIGINAL - and paying close attention to its wisdom. Written just five years after the crash, Security Analysis's message today is just as vivid, just as lucid, and just as vital as it was in 1934.

Mutual-fund superstar Peter Lynch and author John Rothchild explain the basic principles of the stock market and business in an investing guide that will enlighten and entertain anyone who is high-school age or older.Many investors, including some with substantial portfolios, have only the sketchiest idea of how the stock market works. The reason, say Lynch and Rothchild, is that the basics of investing—the fundamentals of our economic system and what they have to do with the stock market—aren’t taught in school. At a time when individuals have to make important decisions about saving for college and 401(k) retirement funds, this failure to provide a basic education in investing can have tragic consequences. For those who know what to look for, investment opportunities are everywhere. The average high-school student is familiar with Nike, Reebok, McDonald’s, the Gap, and the Body Shop. Nearly every teenager in America drinks Coke or Pepsi, but only a very few own shares in either company or even understand how to buy them. Every student studies American history, but few realize that our country was settled by European colonists financed by public companies in England and Holland—and the basic principles behind public companies haven’t changed in more than three hundred years. In Learn to Earn, Lynch and Rothchild explain in a style accessible to anyone who is high-school age or older how to read a stock table in the daily newspaper, how to understand a company annual report, and why everyone should pay attention to the stock market. They explain not only how to invest, but also how to think like an investor.

A detailed guide to overcoming the most frequently encountered psychological pitfalls of investing Bias, emotion, and overconfidence are just three of the many behavioral traits that can lead investors to lose money or achieve lower returns. Behavioral finance, which recognizes that there is a psychological element to all investor decision-making, can help you overcome this obstacle.In The Little Book of Behavioral Investing, expert James Montier takes you through some of the most important behavioral challenges faced by investors. Montier reveals the most common psychological barriers, clearly showing how emotion, overconfidence, and a multitude of other behavioral traits, can affect investment decision-making.Offers time-tested ways to identify and avoid the pitfalls of investor bias Author James Montier is one of the world's foremost behavioral analysts Discusses how to learn from our investment mistakes instead of repeating them Explores the behavioral principles that will allow you to maintain a successful investment portfolio Written in a straightforward and accessible style, The Little Book of Behavioral Investing will enable you to identify and eliminate behavioral traits that can hinder your investment endeavors and show you how to go about achieving superior returns in the process.Praise for The Little Book Of Behavioral Investing"The Little Book of Behavioral Investing is an important book for anyone who is interested in understanding the ways that human nature and financial markets interact." --Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics, Duke University, and author of Predictably Irrational"In investing, success means�being on the right side of most trades. No book provides a better starting point toward that goal than this one." --Bruce Greenwald, Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management, Columbia Business School"'Know thyself.' Overcoming human instinct is key to becoming a better investor.� You would be irrational if you did not read this book." --Edward Bonham-Carter, Chief Executive and Chief Investment Officer, Jupiter Asset Management"There is not an investor anywhere who wouldn't profit from reading this book." --Jeff Hochman, Director of Technical Strategy, Fidelity Investment Services Limited"James Montier gives us a very accessible version of why we as investors are so predictably irrational, and a guide to help us channel our 'Inner Spock' to make better investment decisions. Bravo!" --John Mauldin, President, Millennium Wave Investments

The Warren Buffett Way provided the first look into the strategies that the master uses to pick stocks. A New York Times bestseller, it is a valuable and practical primer on the principles behind the remarkable investment run of the famed oracle of Omaha. In this much-awaited companion to that book, author Robert Hagstrom takes the next logical step, revealing how to profitably manage stocks once you select them. THE WARREN BUFFETT PORTFOLIO will help you through the process of building a superior portfolio and managing the stocks going forward. Building a concentrated portfolio is critical for investment success. THE WARREN BUFFETT PORTFOLIO introduces the next wave of investment strategy, called focus investing. A comprehensive investment strategy used with spectacular results by Buffett, focus investing directs investors to select a concentrated group of businesses by examining their management and financial positions as compared to their stock prices. A strategy that has historically outperformed the market, focus investing is based on the principle that a shareholder's return from owning a stock is ultimately determined by the economics of the underlying business. Hagstrom explains in easy-to-understand terms exactly what focus investing is, how it works, and how it can be applied by any investor at any level of experience. He demonstrates how Buffett arranges his stocks in a focus portfolio and reveals why this is as responsible for his incredible returns as the individual stocks he picks. Ultimately, Hagstrom shows how to use this technique to build and manage a portfolio to achieve the best possible results.

This is a MUST read for anybody interested in investment, management or business in general. It not only provides, in my opinion, the most sound investment strategies and advice, but also provides guidelines on how to run businesses with moral integrity and focus on providing value. It heavily criticizes various self-serving practices of "modern" CEOs, while at the same time not saying CEOs should not be well compensated. In other words, Buffet and by extension Berkshire demonstrate how you can actually create value and be wealthy by being honest and hard-working and not doing so on expense of your shareholders (or customers). He also analyses several economically important historic events (e.g. the 2008 sub-prime loans situation) and explains what went wrong in those instances.The book is a collection of excerpts from selected letters from Warren Buffett (and on occasion Charlie Munger) to their shareholders at Berkshire one of the most valuable US corporations. These letters in general available on their website, but how Lawrence Cunningham made a valuable selection and organization of (probably) most meaningful ones in this book. The organization adds value as it groups excerpts not in chronological order, but first grouped in various topics addressed (e.g. corporate governance, common stocks, investment alternatives) and then by importance. This gives an interesting perspective on how some things developed over years. While there is obviously some repetition, in the instance of this book this makes sense. The letters were written in various times (1986-2011) and repetition only demonstrates how Buffett's strategies are consistent and longterm (and that is the main reason for their success).Buffett's writing style is superb and often humorous. However, reading the book requires some understanding of economics and investing in general. It's uses quite some investment jargon (which I guess Berkshire shareholders are familiar with) which might be hard to get past if you're new to this domain. I am sure I will come back to this book (or the letters directly) several times as even with my fair grasp of the domain, certain things didn't yet full resonate. Finally, Buffett's main investment advice is easy to summarize:"We want the business to be one (a) that we can understand; (b) with favorable long-term prospects; (c) operated by honest and competent people; and (d) available at a very attractive price."

The definitive work concerning Warren Buffett and intelligent investment philosophy, this is a collection of Buffett's letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway written over the past few decades that together furnish an enormously valuable informal education. The letters distill in plain words all the basic principles of sound business practices. They are arranged and introduced by a leading apostle of the "value" school and noted author, Lawrence Cunningham. Here in one place are the priceless pearls of business and investment wisdom, woven into a delightful narrative on the major topics concerning both managers and investors. These timeless lessons are ever-more important in the current environment.

Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's visionary vice chairman and Warren Buffett's indispensable financial partner, has outperformed market indexes again and again, and he believes any investor can do the same. His notion of "elementary, worldly wisdom"--a set of interdisciplinary mental models involving economics, business, psychology, ethics, and management--allows him to keep his emotions out of his investments and avoid the common pitfalls of bad judgment.Munger's system has steered his investments for forty years and has guided generations of successful investors. This book presents the essential steps of Munger's investing strategy, condensed here for the first time from interviews, speeches, writings, and shareholder letters, and paired with commentary from fund managers, value investors, and business-case historians. Derived from Ben Graham's value-investing system, Munger's approach is straightforward enough that ordinary investors can apply it to their portfolios. This book is not simply about investing. It is about cultivating mental models for your whole life, but especially for your investments.

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.

In The Little Book That Builds Wealth, author Pat Dorsey--the Director of Equity Research for leading independent investment research provider Morningstar, Inc.--reveals why competitive advantages, or economic moats, are such strong indicators of great long-term investments and examines four of their most common sources: intangible assets, cost advantages, customer-switching costs, and network economics. Along the way, he skillfully outlines this proven approach and reveals how you can effectively apply it to your own investment endeavors.

Financial Shenanigans is by Howard Schilit, president of the Center for Financial Research and Analysis. It is a very readable step-by-step guide to detecting fraud by reading financial statements.Most of the big corporate scandals in the past few years have been in one way or another accounting scandals. Either accounting was the primary method of committing fraud, or else accounting was used to cover up other malfeasance. Schilit identifies seven "shenanigans" and the ways they are typically performed. They are:1. Recording revenue too soon or of questionable quality2. Recording bogus revenue3. Boosting income with one-time gains4. Shifting a current expense to a later or earlier period5. Failing to record or improperly reducing liabilities6. Shifting current revenue to a later period7. Shifting future expenses to the current period as a special chargeAll of this has to do with accounting arcana, which is what makes these kinds of scandals so opaque to the public. The public understandably doesn’t understand what's been done, much less how anyone was hurt by it. One misunderstanding that one sees in newspapers occasionally is what a reserve is, and why not having one or underestimating one is bad. The impression given is that reserves are actual money--rainy day funds to pay for future litigation or bad debt.That's why a readable book like this is useful. It really goes into accounting detail, and explains what the various financial statements are, and how to read them. It gives lots of examples of specific companies caught engaging in specific shenanigans. (Some, like Sunbeam, seems to have engaged in about every kind of shenanigan possible.) He always shows stock price graphs so one can see what the result is to equity when the chickens come home to roost. (He also uses the graphs as a way to brag on the CFRA's ability to see trouble early. They always seem to issue warnings well before the shenanigan is discovered. But, Cassandra-like, their warnings are ignored by investors. If their record at detecting shenanigans is so good, you would expect stock prices to drop every time they issue a warning on a company. Hmm.) Occasionally he offers a pungent detail or two on the company's story, but it would be better if he gave a little more--like this executive went to jail, or that executive was forbidden by the SEC to ever run a publicly traded company again, etc.I think this would be a good book for undergraduate and graduate business students, especially those interested in becoming analysts. Aside from giving a lot of practical advice, it would be an entertaining counterweight to the (let's face it) fairly tedious accounting textbooks that one necessarily has to read.

Investors are all too often lured by the prospect of instant millions and fall prey to the many fads of Wall Street. The myriad approaches they adopt offer little or no real prospect for long-term success and invariably run the risk of considerable economic loss - they resemble speculation or outright gambling, not a coherent investment program. But value investing - the strategy of investing in securities trading at an appreciable discount from underlying value - has a long history - has a long history of delivering excellent investment results with limited downside risk. Taking its title from Benjamin Graham's often-repeated admonition to invest always with a margin of safety, Klarman's 'Margin of Safety' explains the philosophy of value investing, and perhaps more importantly, the logic behind it, demonstrating why it succeeds while other approaches fail. The blueprint that Klarman offers, if carefully followed, offers the investor the strong possibility of investment success with limited risk. 'Margin of Safety' shows you not just how to invest but how to think deeply about investing - to understand the rationale behind the rules to appreciate why they work when they work, and why they don't when they don't.

Widely respected and admired, Philip Fisher is among the most influential investors of all time. His investment philosophies, introduced almost forty years ago, are not only studied and applied by today's financiers and investors, but are also regarded by many as gospel. This book is invaluable reading and has been since it was first published in 1958. The updated paperback retains the investment wisdom of the original edition and includes the perspectives of the author's son Ken Fisher, an investment guru in his own right in an expanded preface and introduction"I sought out Phil Fisher after reading his Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits...A thorough understanding of the business, obtained by using Phil's techniques...enables one to make intelligent investment commitments."Warren Buffet

Legendary money manager Peter Lynch explains his own strategies for investing and offers advice for how to pick stocks and mutual funds to assemble a successful investment portfolio.Develop a Winning Investment Strategy—with Expert Advice from “The Nation’s #1 Money Manager.” Peter Lynch’s “invest in what you know” strategy has made him a household name with investors both big and small. An important key to investing, Lynch says, is to remember that stocks are not lottery tickets. There’s a company behind every stock and a reason companies—and their stocks—perform the way they do. In this book, Peter Lynch shows you how you can become an expert in a company and how you can build a profitable investment portfolio, based on your own experience and insights and on straightforward do-it-yourself research. In Beating the Street, Lynch for the first time explains how to devise a mutual fund strategy, shows his step-by-step strategies for picking stock, and describes how the individual investor can improve his or her investment performance to rival that of the experts. There’s no reason the individual investor can’t match wits with the experts, and this book will show you how.

The heart of this book is chapters 12-14. Chapter 12 is titled "Give the Company a Physical" and shows you how to examine the balance sheet. The important ratios here are:1. The current ratio - Current assets over Current liabilities - look for a figure greater than 22. The quick ratio - same thing minus the inventory3. Shareholder equity (book value)- Total assets (less intangibles) minus total liabilities4. Debt to equity ratio - Total debt over Shareholders equity - look for numbers < 1 - the lower the number the betterChapter 13 is titled "Physical Exam Part II" and examines the income statement. 1. Look for growing revenues ( sales)- top line2. Gross Profit - Sales minus COGS3. Gross profit margin - Gross profit over Revenue - look for stability4. EPS - net profit divided by shares outstanding5. ROC - Earnings divided by beginning of the year's capital (stockholder's equity plus debt)6. A low P/E relative to industry and marketChapter 14 is titled Send Your Stocks to the Mayo Clinic. Her he gives you 16 additional questions to ask about your company. You have to get the book to see the questions.This book gave me the idea to create a spread sheet with info that I gathered from the book. The following is the one I did on Intel. INTEL Shares Outstanding 4,980 Price per share 24.26 Market Capitalization $120,815 Earnings per share 2.0 TOTAL ASSETS 83083 NET WORTH ( SHAREHOLDERS EQUITY) 51,194 Intangibles 15563 Total Liabilities 31889 Book Value per Share $7.15 Price to Book value per share ratio Selling for 3 times the amount company can be sold forPrice to Earnings per share ratio Selling for 12.1 times earningsCurrent Assets 28677 Total Current Liabilities 11798 Net Current Assets (Graham's number) $16,879 Net Current Assets per share $3.39 Price to net current assets per share ratio Selling for 7.2 times net current assetsTotal Assets 83083 Total Debts 31889 Assets to Debt ratio 2.6

In the world of investing, the name Warren Buffett is synonymous with success and prosperity—now you can learn how Warren Buffett did it and how you can, too.Building from the ground up, Buffett chose wisely and picked his stocks with care, in turn amassing the huge fortune for which he is now famous. Mary Buffett, former daughter-in-law of this legendary financial genius and a successful businesswoman in her own right, has teamed up with noted Buffettologist David Clark to create Buffettology, a one-of-a-kind investment guide that explains the winning strategies of the master. -Learn how to approach investing the way Buffett does, based on the authors' firsthand knowledge of the secrets that have made Buffett the world's second wealthiest man -Use Buffett's proven method of investing in stocks that will continue to grow over time -Master the straightforward mathematical equipments that assist Buffett in making investments -Examine the kinds of companies that capture Buffett's interest, and learn how you can use this information to make your own investment choices of the future Complete with profiles of fifty-four "Buffett companies"—companies in which Buffett has invested and which the authors believe he continues to follow—Buffettology can show any investor, from beginner to savvy pro, how to create a profitable portfolio.

Praise for Damn Right! From the author of the bestselling WARREN BUFFETT SPEAKS. . . "Charlie Munger, whose reputation is deep and wide, based on an extraordinary record of brilliantly successful business strategies, sees things that others don't. There is a method to his mastery and, through this book, we get a chance to learn about this rare individual." -MICHAEL EISNER, Chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney Company "Janet Lowe uncovers the iconoclastic genius and subtle charm behind Charlie Munger's curmudgeonly facade in this richly woven portrait of our era's heir to Ben Franklin. With a biographer's detachment, an historian's thoroughness, and a financial writer's common sense, Lowe produces a riveting account of the family, personal, and business life of the idiosyncratically complex and endlessly fascinating figure." -LAWRENCE CUNNINGHAM, Cardozo Law School, Author of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America "For years, Berkshire Hathaway shareholders and investors worldwide (me included) have struggled to learn more about Warren Buffett's cerebral sidekick. Now we can rest and enjoy reading Janet Lowe's book about this rare intellectual jewel called Charlie Munger." -ROBERT G. HAGSTROM, Author of The Warren Buffett Way "Charlie has lived by the creed that one should live a life that doesn't need explaining. But his life should be explained. In a city where heroism is too often confused with celebrity, Charlie is a true hero and mentor. He lives the life lessons that he has studiously extracted from other true heroes and mentors, from Ben Franklin to Ben Graham. This book illuminates those life lessons." -RONALD L. OLSON, Munger, Tolles & Olson llp "Janet Lowe's unprecedented access to Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett has resulted in a first-class book that investors, academics, and CEOs will find entertaining and highly useful."-TIMOTHY P. VICK, Money Manager and Author of How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett

The volume is Benjamin Graham's timeless guide to interpreting and understanding financial statements. It has long been out of print, but now joins Graham's other masterpieces, The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis, as the three keys to understanding Graham and value investing. Readers will learn to analyze a company's balance sheets and income statements and arrive at a true understanding of its financial position and earnings record. Graham provides simple tests any reader can apply to determine the financial health and well-being of any company. This volume is an exact text replica of the first edition of The Interpretation of Financial Statements, published by Harper & Brothers in 1937. Graham's original language has been restored, and readers can be assured that every idea and technique presented here appears exactly as Graham intended.