Business-valuation

The framework introduced in this book is excellent and the information is broad and thorough. I read a lot of Buffett and Graham; this book gives a very good description of their teachings as well of the perspectives of many other great value investors in the US. However, I thought that the author could have spent more time explaining each of the "five keys" with more examples and perhaps use a few international companies as well.

I got my copy of "The Five Keys to Value Investing" as a graduation gift from my dad who is a longtime professional equities investor. He thought this book would be a good way for me to prep before I start my career on Wall Street. I was not disappointed. The Five Keys is a very good summary of what I learned in business school and much, much more. The author draws heavily from his own professional experiences as a disciple of one legendary value investor and couples it with the value investment styles of other great investors like Buffett and Graham. The experience that the reader is drawn into is very worthwhile; but what makes this book very special is the framework. I have read several investment books over the years, but none like this one. Putting thousands of lessons and teachings of prominent value investors into a solid frame of mind is clearly the draw. In addition, reading along as the author analyzes and dissects companies and few special situations add gravitas to the body of work. The clarity in the concepts and the "conversation-like" tone was particularly attractive to me. In sum, this is a very coherent, practical book on the principles of value investing despite the fact that it is not too objective -- considering the authors' strong unapologetic bias towards value investing.

Mr. Jean-Jacques lead an insightful and meaningful discussion on value investing at the local book store. After picking up the book, it took me just three days to read it and I am glad I did. To be honest, I did not know what to expect prior to reading the book because from his discussion, Mr. Jean-Jacques came across as an extremely bright but private person. Also, I had never heard of him before. He seems to be non-promotional. However, after reading it the book spared nothing and explained the basics of value investing very well supported by very good and real-life examples. Anyone who enjoys following the stock market and value investing in particular will truly cherish this book.

It's basically a collection of dumbed-down review articles on modern fixed income. There's not as much in here on option pricing as I would have wished, and if you consider yourself a reasonable technical person who's seen any fixed income trading before, it's not going to be that helpful to you.

It's a nice SUMMARY of the literature available for those who don't have the time to read it all first-hand. Since my primary interest is more towards equity exotics, the book was more than satisfactory for me. I'd say the target audience is non-fixed income exotics traders, quants without much background in fixed income, and academics.

The best article in the book is probably the one written by Das. He's one of my favorite authors and his chapter in this book is no exception.

My main complaint is that many portions of the book INSIST on using econometric models and pricing kernels rather than the DiffEq framework. For that reason, I like Paul Wilmott's presentaion of the math a little better. I find myself constantly referring back to "Derivatives" and translating what the guys in this book are trying to say.

As with most books in the field, it is also very poor at describing the implementation of the models presented.

Very comprehensive book addressing almost every situation that should be considered during a buy/sell transaction. Good overview of tax ramifications. Good sample language for all aspects of an agreement for the stock or asset sale of a business. Somewhat slanted toward the buyers' role, but not so much as to be unuseful to the seller. For the attorneys, CPA, etc., this is a good reference source. For the business owner who likes to look over his expert's shoulder, this is the book!

Although my husband and I are fairly sophisticated investors, the title of this book appealed to us. It's written in an easy to read style, without complicated graphs and charts and without a lot of investment jargon. For us, it was interesting to read how the pros on Wall Street pick their stocks -- to "get into their heads" a little-- by reading the profiles. However, this book is really ideal for the novice investor, because it covers many topics and is a terrific overview. The lessons are short, but we see that as an advantage for someone who is new to investing. If the lessons were too long or too complicated, a new investor might not stick with the book long enough to finish it. There is a lot of information in this book. In fact, we're recommending it to some friends who want to get into the stock market, but have no idea where to begin. They would have to spend months reading to learn what's condensed in this book. The book also helps would-be investors learn about sources of information on the Internet (and other places). We think this is a great first book for anyone who wants to get an overview of investing.

This book was the first book I read about the stock market and I found it an easy read and it opened up my mind for the stock market. Acctually it gave me a different view. Much more relaxed view if you like. At the same time I found the author repeting himself too often. You will need further reading but this book is a good beginner and it also plays a role as a guide for further reading.

It is funny how different people can have so many conflicting opinions about the same book. The author interviewed some of the most famous and successful investors in the country. You have to be out of your mind not to come away with something useful. The lessons are not obvious, at least to this humble long-term investor. Maybe if you know everything about the stock market, then devising a strategy, creating rules, cutting your losses, holding winners, minimizing risk by using dollar cost averaging, avoiding trading options and futures and 101 other lessons might be common-sense, but not to me.

Bottom line: One of the best books I have read on investing in the stock market.