accounting

It's the best investment book I've read in a long while. I think it should sit on every investor's book shelf. A true classic. I have positioned it on my desk next to my copy of Security Analysis (Graham & Dodd) and The Intelligent Investor (Graham) - exactly where it deserves to be. I especially liked how Prof. Cunningham touched on Chaos Theory as well as the chapter on the Circle of Competence and the Fireside CEO chapter. Of course, Part 3 of the book was so well done it is really hard to elevate one chapter over the other. Really well done. Prof. Cunningham has done the public a great favour with this book. Lastly, the satirical look at balance sheet and earnings manipulation via the fictional dotcom company was a beautiful touch! Graham would've approved and I am sure Mr. Buffett does...

Cunningham is a great thinker whose compilation of Warren Buffett's essays was a major contribution to this field, but this book falls short of the true classics.

Cunningham is at his best setting up a thoughtful framework for the ideas of Buffett and Graham, and adds useful case studies to illustrate the major principles. His discussions of chaos and probability theory are invaluable in thinking about individual stocks within the broader market environment.

However, I find he adds little original thought to the actual seeking out and analysis of great investments, and this books lacks the analytical rigor needed to make great decisions - which is ultimately what the title promises. I also found the section on corporate governance, while useful and on target, excessive relative to how little space is given to the objective analysis of specific companies.

I recommend sticking to the original masters - Graham (The Intelligent Investor), Buffett (Essays/Lessons for Corporate America, which Cunningham compiled) and Fisher (Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits) - for the best thinking in any market environment.

For any reader or beginner who likes to have a very brief idea of what Graham and Buffet preach on value investing, this book is okay.

In order to make the book readable and interesting, the author had chosen not to go into details of how but focus mostly on principles. About 35% of the book is spent, in text and no data/graph, on validating value over price as the primary consideration of any investment. I think that's far too much. That makes the part on the assessment of the true value of a stock too simple and short.

Anyway, this is just an introduction of value investing (like the first chapter in a 12 chapter book) and far from complete. Stronly suggest any aspired value investor or even trader to read the originals from Graham and Buffet for a full picture before they take up one of the most competitive and demanding job in the world.