Customer Rating:  
Summary: Educational, different and a bit difficult if you're looking to learn
Comment: Now, you can't breeze through this book like you would "One Up on Wall Street," but that's because this book covers a lot of accounting and financial concepts involved with companies. It's sort of a textbook on how to find good companies using various different financial metrics. Dorsey definitely knows his stuff, but in order to learn what he's teaching you, you've gotta pay rapt attention throughout the entire book and have pen in hand to highlight everything. I'm an engineer by profession, so I'm accustomed to working with math, etc., but getting into the accounting and financial terminology for most of 350 pages can be exhausting. The back half of the book is downright revolutionary in that it explores the different investment sectors (e.g. health care, retail, consumer products) and tells you how to analyze companies within those sectors.
It might seem obvious that one should generally be wary of restaurant stocks because, hey, you eat at the Outback all the time and you see it's crowded all the time, so you should by the stock, right? Maybe. Dorsey explains it to you and you say, "Yeah, that makes sense." Any schlub can whistle on down, rent some space and start cooking meals for people. That's why the restaurant business is highly competitive, 'cause it's easy for competition to sprout up.
You should definitely have a copy of this book if you're a serious investor, but don't think you're just gonna kick back on the beach and read it (unless, of course, you're not really serious about an education in investing).
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best books for the beginner.
Comment: I have just recently entered into the world of investing, and this book has really helped me to have a much better understanding of what I'm doing. At first, I was more or less just picking companies (hey, I like this one, etc). Dorsey's book was very helpful and informative. It gives you a ton of suggestions on how to evaluate a company, and it guides you through the some of the hard-to-read financial reports.
Before reading this book, I read Phil Town's Rule #1 book, and a lot of the basic principles are the same, but Dorsey's book actually explains the concepts to you. I cannot recommend Town's book.
I would heartily recommend that everyone read this book before they begin investing. You will be glad you did.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good and thorough introduction to value investing
Comment: This was a solid introduction to value investing. I especially appreciate that it takes the time to break out the nuances of different industries and how this impacts your investments. The approach outlined makes a lot of sense -- very logical. It makes me wonder why anyone would do it any other way.
After losing money too frequently on poor investments in otherwise good companies, I decided that there had to be a better method to investing than what I had been following (which was my own ad-hoc approach). I purchased a handful of books on value investing and I would say that this was the best and most thorough of the group. Using the principles layed out in this book, I can tell exactly what I was doing wrong and have already seen an improvement in the investments I choose. Despite a market that is significantly down, I'm holding steady and now have a much more confidence that when the market picks up, I will be in the right place.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Tips for stock investing for amateurs to experts
Comment: The book, "Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing," is an outstanding read.
It covers ALL aspects of choosing equity investments (though stocks are the focus). Best of all, it takes a fairly complex subject and breaks it into digestible chunks. For example, the author goes through the process of reading financial statements (annual report and 10k), showing where the money appears and disappears without requiring a bachelor degree in accounting.
Digestible chapters simple means that there is one idea which is developed for each section and not so much detail that it becomes a textbook exercise. (One does not lose the point of the discussion.)
It is illustrated with examples of well known companies, with an explanation of why the best answer is not always the obvious answer.
Finally, it is written in a style that is thoroughly readable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Common sense
Comment: I really really like this book and keep going back to it. Mr. Dorsey has a knack for presenting what could be very confusing obtuse financial information and definitions into concise and simple manner without dumbing down the reader. The book has some simple rules that could be incorporated into a stock picking stategy. Combined with other books from william O'Neill and Peter Lynch, it just adds to what goes into picking a great stock. Isn't it wonderful that most of the information is available free on the net? I don't invest in stock recommendation services for the simple fact that I want to learn how to pick good stocks for myself without having to fall back on the crutch of someone else's opinion, cuz that's basically all it is, an opinion.
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