Oh, forgot, I’m in business valuation and “Valuing a Business” by Shannon Pratt is a very important book.
During the crisis I bought several stocks that were trading low even though they weren’t “directly” impacted and made very large returns. But I agree that in general, computer screening makes those prices adjust much quicker than back in the day. I still like researching a company to make a decision, but research is valuable on companies that aren’t covered by 500 analysts. And if it is, I’m usaully trying to decide if they are extrapolating recent events too much into the future. But lately I don’t buy individual stocks because I don’t have the time and everything seems so expensive.
Yo Bro, is your dck down to your knees or something?
I’ve given up on being a BSD investor. Sad but true. I just don’t see the money value of my time running screens, discounting cash flows, and applying various multiples. Maybe some of you here can find the magic formula, I just would rather spend my free time in other ways.
Books I like:
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Random Walk & Non Random Walk
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Take on the Street
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Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst (I met Reingold, nice guy)
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Hedge Hunters and Market Wizards
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Quants and Dark Pools
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All the Money in the World: Forbes 400 (Kinda finance, but more about success in general)
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Liar’s Poker
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Stephen Frey Finance Series
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Fortune Formula
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Bringing Down the House (I almost joined a card counting team, turned out to be a scam)
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Damn it feels good to be a banker
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Where are all the customers’ yachts?
This is so good, highly recommend and can do it in a day
I agree with everything you said here. Especially that it was a lot easier in 2009 lol
“Fooling some of the people all of the time” (David Einhorn). Taught me what real in-depth fundamental research should look like.
Oaktree chairman’s memo’s (Howard Marks). Kinda like Buffett for grown ups :D, elucidates value investing without dumbing it down.
Market Wizards/New Market Wizards/Hedge Fund Market Wizards (Must read for everyone)
Atlas Shrugged (Lumping it in here)
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Trend Following (Covel has a huge ego and thinks trend following is the only style that works but this was a good book)
Insider Buy Superstocks (a recent read with a horrible title but I got a lot out of it content-wise)
Stan Weinstein’s Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets
Marty Zweig’s Winning on Wall Street
^ I can tell you’re a trader
I’m a trader at heart and love reading about other traders.
if Reminiscences is good at one thing, it’s pushing you to grow some nuts and take chances when a large part of you says hold back, manage risk. without Reminiscences, I wouldn’t have had the guts to put big dollars down and keep adding when the stars were lining up. i owe a lot to this book. and keep going back to it.
on the other hand, it is also a cautionary tale, if you’ve tracked his life over time.
bottom line is that there is no harm reading a book about the best stock trader in history. dude went from what, zero to ~$1 billion (in today’s dollars) in about 5 years, then down to zero, and zero to ~$28 billion in about 10 years?, then back down to zero. absolutely nuts.
I’ve read quite a few but for my all-time favorite, I’d have to go with:
2009 CFA Level II Volume 4 - Equity
Couldn’t put it down.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a movie yet on this legend. Even his ending was dramatic.
Seth Klarman’s Margin of Safety
Competition Demystified by Bruce Greenwald
This is first finance book i have ever read (still reading)
Value Investing Today by Charles H Brandes
Anyone read this? Feed back apprecaited.
Interested in learning about what clued you in on this within the proxy.
The insiders owned >50%, primarily two owners. The company recently went public in 2007 and they did not want to be public, they just needed the liquidity at the time. The founders / owners were not directly managing the company day-to-day. Strangely, the board contained an M&A attorney from Baltimore with a good background in law (CCIX is based in Chicago so that’s kind of weird). Turns out the M&A guy was childhood friends with the founders, but it’s interesting because most boards are clueless about M&A so it’s always bullish if you see a company intentionally seek out that kind of expertise.
It was also a consolidating industry and they had in turn been a consolidator but were now one of the smaller big fish remaining, that’s usually a good place to be.
They were also (apparently now in hindsight) packaging it up for a sale by reworking their cost base and refinancing their debt. These were attractive catalysts regardless of whether a sale occurred or not and were the primary reason I bought the stock. The long-time CFO stepping down months before the sale was also probably a tip off in hindsight, they knew they were going to sell and were putting the new regime in place (apparently).
Yeah, all that and I asked them and they said they would sell it at the right price if they got a good offer. Stock worked either way regardless of a sale but the sale was a nice kicker after a good run.
^ I bet your BSD is down to your knees son (no homo). Keep preaching straight troof 'round AF!
Thanks for the response. Appreciate the insight!
The age of deleveraging is also an interesting read although the author is one of the most arrogant person out there. He claims he predicted every recession since the late 60s.