CITATION

Cunningham, Lawrence A.. How To Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett. McGraw-Hill, 2001.

How To Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett

Published:  January 2001

eISBN: 9780071381048 007138104X | ISBN: 9780071369923

Book description:

How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett wraps a lifetime of investing wisdom into one highly accessible package. An intelligent guide to analyzing and valuing investment targets, it tells investors what questions to ask, what answers to expect, and how to approach any stock as a skeptical, common-sense business analyst.

Above all, this fast-paced book provides investors with the tools they need to thoroughly value any business in which they might invest. A common-sense approach to investing, this book discusses:

  • Three things investors must get from a financial statement

  • Valuation examples from today's top companies including GE, Amazon, Microsoft, and Disney

  • Why prices deviate from actual values

"Common sense is the heart of investing and business management. Yet the paradox of common sense is that it is very uncommon." So begins Lawrence Cunningham in How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett, an unflinching look at how to accomplish the two things investing tital Warren Buffett, disciple of Security Analysis author Benjamin Graham, argues every investor must know in order to invest wisely and profitably: how to value a business and how to think about markets and market prices. Cunningham, author of the best-selling Essays of Warren Buffett, shows how most investors approach investing and the markets full of empty questions, in fact seeking answers to questions that have little or no meaning or actual relevance to performance. He shows that most investors do a lot of guessing and a lot of hoping, when what they really should be doing is approaching the markets business analysts. How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett wil help readers develop the mind-set that will be the foundation to successful investing.

A Commonsense Investing Approach that Combines 21st Century Technology with the Market-Proven Strategies of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett

Selected by JP Morgan as a Top 10 "Must Read"

"Earnings and cash flows are... the critical link in the investment chain, and Larry Cunningham's book forges it with heat, power, and persuasiveness."

­­John Bogle, Founder, The Vanguard Group

"A much-needed work on a unique style of investing, this book puts the ABCs of common sense valuation back into the business of investing. This is the place to look for insight and guidance in the age of volatile markets and colliding ideas."

­­Alan C. Greenberg

Chairman, Bear Stearns

"Anyone desiring to be a successful investor should read this excellent book presenting the important investing principles of Graham, Buffett, Fisher, and others in a most insightful and understandable manner."

­­David J. Gottesman

Chairman, First Manhattan

"Remarkably timely. For stock players who realize they played the greatest fool in the Internet stock game, Cunningham offers a tool for rehabilitation: a guide to thoughtful investing. For earnest investors, he shows how to live profitably with the moodiness of Mr. Market."

­­David Henry

Columnist, USA Today

"While the stock market does not always behave rationally, Larry Cunningham's well-articulated and insightful views as to value investing are a refreshing reminder that, just as night follows day, a return to the principles at the core of Cunningham's common sense approach to investing is inevitable."

­­Samuel J. Heyman

Chairman of the Board and CEO, GAF Corporation

"Lawrence Cunningham explains, then debunks, most of today's acronyms, buzz words, and pop investing concepts. He gets down to the fundamentals that investors must know about companies in order to choose reliable winners in the stock market."

­­Janet Lowe

Author, Benjamin Graham on Value Investing and Warren Buffett Speaks

"Following the herd may seem rational and intelligent­­until it stampedes straight off the cliff."

­­From Chapter 1

Lawrence Cunningham possesses one of today's clearest, most distinct voices on the inherent irrationalityof investors and the stock market. Renowned for his no-nonsense style and straightforward approach, he is also renowned for telling independent investors­­better than any other market observer­­how and where to find uncommon values in virtually any market environment.

In How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett, Cunninghamreturns to the basics­­by returning to the two legends who established, and then refined, those basics. He shatters many of today's common investing myths, replacing them with the facts and tools needed to thoroughly analyze the investment value of any business.

This remarkable book illustrates how forces that are unique to today's market­­including electronic day trading, an overvalued IPO market, and computer-based stock exchanges­­are leading to an increasingly wide gap between price and value. It then convincingly explains how to close that gap, and find underpriced stocks poised to recover their value, by using the business analysis approaches and insights of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett.

In a sophisticated but readable style, How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett discusses how to understand and apply the time-proven tenets of value investing:

How to value a business­­with valuation examples from top companies including GE, Microsoft, Amazon.com, and others

How to rate business managers­­a key to finding quality long-term investments

How to know when management is playing with numbers­­and understand the games they play

Unlike any financial book you have ever read, How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett wraps a lifetime of investing wisdom into one compelling, insightful, and highly accessible package. An intelligent guide to accurately analyzing and realistically valuing investment targets, it will tell you what questions to ask, what answers to expect, and how to approach every stock as an experienced, skeptical, and commonsense business analyst.

Lawrence A. Cunningham is author of the bestselling The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America as well as a number of textbooks and supplements. As director of the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center on Corporate Governance at Cardozo Law School, Professor Cunningham is a leading expert in three fields that are essential to successful investing—accounting, finance, and corporate governance. He has been featured in Forbes and Money, as well as on CNN and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and is frequently invited to speak to investment groups throughout North America.