Good Stocks Cheap: Value Investing with Confidence for a Lifetime of Stock Market Outperformance

Having read 10+ books on value investing during the last few months - including all the classics - I can confidently state that this is the most fluently readable book when approaching the investment strategy of Value Investing:- clearly and concisely written- to the point, and making points with understandable and lively examples- clear walk-through along the highly applicable model- covers every topic from introduction to value investing to how to build and manage a portfolio, both for starters and veterans in investingThe amount of useful insights conveyed in such a concise manner with a pinch of humour is a delightful read! If you're serious about starting concentrated value investing, this book (and the author) is your top pick!

Investing books grab my attention if the author states they are beating the market by a significant margin and it's not a marketing presentation to buy more services. Even better if the author teaches investing at prestigious universities. In other words 'practitioner' and 'theory' balanced well. The author is successful in presenting the model he uses to beat the market in terms of that it is explained well and is actionable. The big point of difference is that, compared to a lot of other books, there are clear explanations and examples...and you are not left wondering for example "how/why did he calculate return on capital employed that way and what numbers were used etc." There are links to company accounts and excel spread sheets. If you have read a lot of books on investing and are especially attracted to value investing I think you will find this book will answer a lot of questions you might have. It's an excellent framework for investing in listed companies.

"If you want to be rich, do what rich people do".Warren Buffett is one of the richest people in the world. This book will show you step-by-step how to evaluate publicly-held corporations, determine a reasonable range of values per share and help you make in informed decision as to how much to pay for shares in the company. In short, you could say that he shows you how to buy "Good Stocks Cheap".What this book will NOT do is offer 'pie-in-the-sky' hot tips, investing fads or 'hidden secrets' that other authors promise. Another thing that he does not do is say things like "If you had bought 1,000 shares of Coke in 1984 ..." or "Obviously all indicators were there to sell Enron before the market collapsed .....". These types of comments are made after-the-fact by authors who want to convince you that they hold all knowledge (they don't).Ken makes no guarantee of overnight riches. In fact, he makes the point of "Value investing is a slow, steady, boring (and consistent) road to wealth that very few want to travel". However, as I travel this road, I am glad that Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall was there and willing to show me the way.Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall is a strong advocate of "If you can identify it, you can manage it.". He will show you the individual steps to take to perform self-analysis on your own stock-picking expertise. If, after three years, you determine that self-directed stock investing is not for you, you will have definite proof of this based on your own analysis rather than some gut-feeling or self-doubts. You can then make an informed decision to seek low cost Index mutual funds instead.By using this book and carefully building an Excel workbook, I now have the tools, resources and knowledge of where to find the key accounting values, plug them into the correct worksheet cells and within minutes determine the "fair market value range" of any publicly traded company. That information in itself is beyond measure.For anyone interested in the concept of "What is this company worth?", I highly recommend this book.

This book is outstanding. I am a value investor and have read over 30 books on value investing. If I could go back to the beginning, I would make this one of the first books that I read. It provides a great introduction for novices, and while I don't consider myself an expert by any means I have been doing this for awhile and still learned quite a bit from this book. Overall, the author provides a great roadmap, written in an accessible manner, of the process of investing, from understanding what a company does, important metrics to follow, Porter's five forces, to evaluating a company price/value on a current multiple basis (i.e. free cash flow multiple), to many of the psychological biases to look out for. The sections of the book are not necessarily comprehensive (this isn't a book on accounting for example), but they tell you what the key areas to focus on are, which is really helpful. The section on evaluating shareholder friendly management was awesome. Then, you can always search for additional information on your own through other materials. There are case studies as well that help to serve as examples. The book does not spend much time on modeling (i.e. dividend discount model), which is deliberate given that the author feels it is too hard to predict the future. Others might disagree, but that is consistent with my view and seems reflected in different studies as well: Free cash flow models look fancy but are subject to all kinds of biases (iread overoptimism), so if you want to learn how to do that you will need to look elsewhere. For the record, I think it is helpful to know how to do a discounted cash flow model, but I definitely do not base my investment decisions off of them. One thing I thought the author could do perhaps would be to better highlight exactly how specific metrics have been linked to excess performance. Tobias Carlisle's books can help with that. In any event though, I rarely write reviews but felt that the author deserved one given that he obviously put a lot of time and energy into this and was very candid with his views.

I am bias about this book, since after I read it I also became a student of the Author via an online course given via Stanford.This is a 'how to' book, and Mr. Marshall goes through his stock analysis step by step. Even though he is witty, and can metaphorically describe certain processes... this can be a little dry. This is not a fun read... this is a valuable read...but hard. He is a very intelligent man, knows his financial definitions, and in this book he provides a 'framework' for you to analyze stocks. The hard part in the book, is that often it is hard to figure out why you need to analyze a certain figure.I got much more out of the book by going through it step by step in the course, and I reiterate my initial thoughts about the book. This is a how to book, and very valuable to be learned. It is a step by step process to analyze stock.What is not clear in the book is how Mr. Marshell invests. He is a buy and hold investor, his current portfolio holds 7 stocks, and most of those he bought in the 90's. He is searching for a company that he understands and continuously growths at a rapid rate, and that has a moat. He looks at 200 companies per annum, most do not make it past the first stage of analysis, and only 40 of them get put through the whole model. It takes about 2 days for him to do the whole analysis. Often if he does find a good company, then it is usually overpriced, and he calculates at what price he would be willing to own it. He then puts it aside and patiently waits till the company becomes cheap enough for him to buy. Often he makes no purchases per year, but his game of patience allows him to beat the market.Whether this style of investing would appeal to you, is for you to decide, however the framework is very valuable to gain more quantitative and qualitative insight to a company.

I bought this book in Kindle edition, reading Kindle version is OK, but I liked the book that much that I consider buying it in paper.The book presents author's approach to investing, describing every particular stage: understanding a business, doing a historical (quantitative) analysis, strategic (qualitative) analysis, identifying shareholder-friendliness and defining a price at which company becomes a good buy.The books is written in easy to understand way with very concrete explanation of things (e.g. the book defines what does it mean exactly to "understand the business" or how you can identify moat even if you're not an expert in an industry).Every chapter is provided with a live example, so you can really see how a material can be applied in practice.The book is also very logically well structured. You don't feel confused reading one chapter after another (like with some other investing books).Despite this is a great book, I'd like to make some points clear:* It's not ultimate guide to investing, exactly opposite: it's detailed explanation of one concrete investing strategy.* Despite this is easy reading, the book may be less enjoyable for complete beginners - it may be not a best start if you don't know how to read finance reports.* IMHO, an experienced investors may also pick up some interesting ideas (e.g. I do not classify myself as an "experienced investor", but I was very pleased to discover how to perform strategic analyses)Enjoy your reading!

Having read 10+ books on value investing during the last 8 weeks - including all the classics - I can confidently state that this is the most fluently readable book when approaching the investment strategy of Value Investing:- clearly and concisely written- to the point, and making points with understandable and lively examples- clear walk-through along the highly applicable model- covers every topic from introduction to value investing to how to build and manage a portfolio, both for starters and veterans in investingThe amount of useful insights conveyed in such a concise manner with a pinch of humour is a delightful read! If you're serious about starting concentrated value investing, this book (and the author) is your top pick!

Easy to follow, full of great research and unconventional ideas. It flows well, allows the reader to see a practical application of the ideas discussed with an applied example at end of every chapter examining a (real) company. Book is a true bargain if you look at the Author's teaching credentials but pays for itself many times over once you read it.I would recommend to anyone, whether in the stock market or not, as it is written with unusual simplicity not often found in financial books.

The best part about this book is that it is equally useful for beginners and advanced investors and has a great section on biases that could cloud the judgement of investors. The book introduces the reader to important concepts of accounting, strategy and psychology which is then used to analyse the business, determine the valuation and analyse its price with respect to value.Must Read!!!!