Investment Philosophies: Successful Investment Philosophies and the Greatest Investors Who Made Them Work
Author: Aswath Damodaran
List Price: $69.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0471345032
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (10 January, 2003)
Sales Rank: 37,257
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
A Good Read!
"Just a spoonful of color would have made the investment philosophies go down, in the most delightful way." To paraphrase nanny Mary Poppins' advice to add honey to nasty-tasting medicine, you may wish that this informative tome was more colorfully written, but you could not wish for a more solid dose of information. Aswath Damodaran backs up his explanations of investing philosophies with ample studies, detailed graphics and a website, even if you need to absorb the dense, detailed data in 15 minute chunks. This well-researched, solid book will be useful to individual investors, investment managers and anyone who wonders why various investment philosophies succeed and how (and at what risk) portfolio gains are made. The index investing chapter and the final summary are required reading for investors wondering how huge portfolios crashed after U.S. equities collapsed. We recommend this soup-to-nuts introduction to sophisticated investing. Your financial security could hinge on a good grasp of the issues it covers.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Excellent book on a good topic
The best thing about the book is it does not offer shallow remedies like "get rich in 30 days" ot " how to become a millionaire", but offers a more academic assement of the philosophies followed by disciplined investors. He fits it nicely in to theoretical framework. I think Damodaran wants to show the relevance of the theoretical knowledge in the strategies folled by these investors.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Comprehensive
Investment Philosophies is one of the best investment books I have ever read. It is both informative in the sense that it contains detailed information, and in the sense that it proposes a theoretical framework for thinking about investing. My only complaint is that Damodaran did not cover more investment philosophies (he considers 7). However that is not a big enough complaint to take away even a half a star let alone a full one.The book is broken down into two segments. The first gives a primer in finance theory which is useful to those who are beginners as well as those with more intermediate knowledge. The first segement is essentially a mini-textbook on finance related to investments. It is extremely handy and very well laid out. The second segment of the book uses the tools developed in the first to analyze various investment philosophies. Damodaran bases 95 percent of all his arguments on academic research. That is, he does not make any claims without backing them up.
There is little new information in this book, although there are the results of a few very recent research projects. The value of this book is in the organization of information already available, and of course in the theoretical framework of the "investment philosophy" that he lays out. It is important to note that Damodaran's definition of investment philosophy is not without dispute. Most investmentment philosophies used in practice do not meet his criteria. So, he is really making an argument for looking at investment philosophies in a new way. It is my belief that this new way is far, far superior to what is currently in use.
Similar Products
The Dark Side of Valuation
Tomorrow's Gold: Asia's Age of Discovery
Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset, Second Edition
New Era Value Investing: A Disciplined Approach to Buying Value and Growth Stocks
The 5 Keys to Value Investing
Book Index