Fundamental Analysis for Dummies

by Matthew Krantz

How to determine the true strength and stability of any business

What's the key to multibillionaire Warren Buffett's five-decade run as the most successful investor in history? Fundamental analysis. Now, Fundamental Analysis For Dummies puts this tried and true method for gauging any company's true underlying value into sensible and handy step-by-step instructions..

In this easy-to-understand, practical, and savvy guide you'll discover why this powerful tool is particularly important to investors in times of economic downturn and how it helps you assess a business's overall financial performance by using historical and present data to forecast its future monetary value. You'll also learn how to use fundamental analysis to spot bargains in the market, minimize your risk, and improve your overall investment skills.


Shows how to predict the future value of a business based on its current and historical financial data Helps you guage a company's performance against its competitors Covers evaluation of internal management Reveals how to determine if in a company's credit standing is any jeopardy Applies fundamental analysis to other investment vehicles, including currency, bonds, and commodities Matt Krantz is a writer and reporter for USA TODAY and USATODAY.COM where he covers investments and financial markets Read Fundamental Analysis For Dummies and find the bargains that could make you the next Warren Buffett!

Genres: Finance, Business, Reference, Nonfiction, Economics, Personal Finance

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[M0rningstar · Rating 1 out of 5]

The range of content this book covers is great, but the book itself is peppered with errors, including math mistakes. There's also a lot of repetitive filler--every other paragraph begins with some lengthy variant of "If you're an investor, fundamental analysis could be very useful! Really!" Formulas are invariably introduced with "Math is scary!" prattle. It would be better to use the table of contents to compile one's own reading list instead of wasting time on this low-yield tome.

Would not recommend.

[ميرلوك ﻓﻴﻨﻮﺱ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect starting point.
"If fundamental analysis is art, it’s definitely a work in progress".

[Alexander Velasquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went from knowing absolutely nothing about fundamental analysis to having a pretty good understanding of how its done one month later having finished the book. The book does exactly what it says it will do: teach you fundamental analysis even if you have zero background on the subject.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kind of dry, but informative! Looking forward to letting robots make investment decisions for me.

[Praveen Rana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the books I've read, this one actually gives you some data on how to pick stocks.

[David Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I read to research this post was Fundamental Analysis For Dummies by Mark Krantz which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book is a great introduction to this subject and also contains a lot of more detailed information for those who know quite a lot already. I am new to the subject and had difficulty understanding the more complex stuff but it's an interesting book nonetheless. This book working out if a company is a good prospect to buy shares in. In America companies who are on the stock market have to publish detailed information about things like cash flow and profits in what is called a 10-K. This has to be done within 75 days of the end of the financial year for big companies and within 90 days for smaller companies. Often the vital facts are buried deep within the report. The most important thing to look for is the profits made and how that compares to the outgoings per quarter. A good company should minimize their outgoings and if their profits dried up tomorrow should have enough accumulated profit to keep it going for quite a long time. Bear in mind even if a company looks good on paper the stock exchange is a very fickle place and there is no guarantee buying shares in that company will make a profit. A couple of good financial web sites are http://reuters.com

& http://money.msn.com there is also financial sites owned by Google & Yahoo but these are mentioned in a previous post. Yahoo do business reports which you can find by searching in the Yahoo search engine. Many of these are priced between $10 & $100 but many are free. If you are looking for the most successful shares today try

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/

A site where you can pick a date and see what the share prices were for a given company is at http://money.usatoday.com

That site is also easy to use. Of course there are lots more web resources in the book and I think this book is essential for any budding investors in shares.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book on performing Fundamental Analysis, which is mainly analyzing a company's financial statements to figure out how well the business is doing and estimate its value (for the purpose of investing). It's straightforward, easy to read, and the material is divided into logical sections. There are even guidelines about what kinds of results you would want to see in a good company, and what results are red flags. Getting that specific about it is often helpful, and rarely done. I will definitely buy my own copy of this to study further and reference.

The excellence is curbed a bit by the fact that the book needed a better editor. Some formulas present an incorrect element or step, and sometimes the wrong word is used (like risk in place of return). My rule of thumb for whether the editing is up to par is that if I can catch the mistakes, a professional editor definitely should have. One or two is reasonable, but several gets to be a problem. Thankfully, the mistakes are fairly obvious and the text describing the formulas or processes are good enough that you can figure out the correct way without much trouble.

[Marko · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could be 80% shorter and then maybe I would give it a 4 out of 5. There are good bits worth reading, but the amount of repeating, empty words and a collection of useless sentences. It took about 30% into the book before there was anything useful about fundamental analysis.
Also the author assume that the reader is below a "dummy"...

[Peter Banachowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "for Dummies" books always have topics I want to learn about, but their format for writing is long winded and written for people who want to develop ADD. Every pages are all these "pop-up" type infographics and tangents... it just breaks your concentration and you lose focus making it hard to push through.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a basic introduction to some of the concepts in fundamental analysis but it never puts it all together. It introduces some concepts and does mention some pitfalls but probably does little to really educate someone about how to apply the knowledge.

[Steven Frazier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book and learned a lot.

[Nuno Trigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

for newbies is a great book but it repeats over and over again

[Blaine Welgraven · Rating 3 out of 5]

“If fundamental analysis is art, it’s definitely a work in progress.” - Matthew Krantz, Fundamental Analysis