"All investors, from beginners to old hands, should gain from the use of this guide, as I have." From the Introduction by Michael F. Price, president, Franklin Mutual Advisors, Inc.
Benjamin Graham has been called the most important investment thinker of the twentieth century. As a master investor, pioneering stock analyst, and mentor to investment superstars, he has no peer.
The volume you hold in your hands is 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 priceless keys to understanding Graham and value investing.
The advice he offers in this book is as useful and prescient today as it was sixty years ago. As he writes in the preface, "if you have precise information as to a company's present financial position and its past earnings record, you are better equipped to gauge its future possibilities. And this is the essential function and value of security analysis."
Written just three years after his landmark Security Analysis, The Interpretation of Financial Statements gets to the heart of the master's ideas on value investing in astonishingly few pages. 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.
Highly practical and accessible, it is an essential guide for all business people--and makes the perfect companion volume to Graham's investment masterpiece The Intelligent Investor.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Meet the father of value investing... and Warren Buffett's mentor:
"In 1984, [Warren] Buffet returned to Columbia to give a speech commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of "Security Analysis". During that speech, he presented his own investment record as well as those of Ruane, Knapp, and Schloss [other successful investment managers who were students of Graham at Columbia]. In short, each of these men posted investment results that blew away the returns of the overall market. Buffett noted that each of the portfolios varied greatly in the number and... more info
Too short.:
This book is a brief summary of how to interpret financial statements. While the book has some good points my main complaint is with its brevity. It also appears this book is best suited for those already familiar with the subject, perhaps as a short reminder of what to look for in financial statements. I think this book would have been better if it had been expanded somewhat and possibly also if it had been included in either the book Security Analysis or in The Intelligent Investor. You should also... more info
The Interpretation of Financial Statements:
A book that really makes you think. Benjamin Graham does it again. After reading The Intelligent Investor I had to find something else written by Graham. This book is full of everything you would need to know to start your analyzation of a companies books or balance sheets. Very informative!
(None):
A short, concise explanation of financial statements by one of the all-time great investors/teachers - Ben Graham. A bit dated today but much of it is still relevant. Since Graham occasionally assumes a knowledge of investing which may be somewhat beyond the novice investor, HOWEVER, if you can't follow the book you're NOT ready to begin investing (go back and get a simpler text until you can understand ALL of this short work - THEN you're ready to put good money at hazard in the Financial Markets).
