The Little Book of Value Investing

October 1, 2006
Browne's experience as managing director of investment firm Tweedy, Browne provides examples to support his lessons on value investing, a method of buying stocks that have fallen in price to earn the best return over the long term. Browne uses examples from successful investors (such as Benjamin Graham, Walter Schloss and Warren Buffet) to illustrate that value investing is the best way to make the most of one's investments. The zingy chapters titles ("Buy Stocks like Steaks...On Sale," "Around the World with 80 Stocks" and "Sifting out the Fool's Gold") are demonstrative of his penchant for metaphors, parables and anecdotes, which make this book as entertaining as it is informative. Browne's short chapters detail useful and time-tested concepts, including the significance of book value, which foreign economies are worth investing in, and who to watch for investment ideas. With detailed advice and thorough explanations, this book should prove an asset to both professional and amateur investors.

This primer says that instead of buying stocks for the short-term, when prices have been run up for capricious reasons by the herd, invest for value by buying solid companies that are cheap relative to their book value, earnings, business performance, and other rational factors. The author comes from a lineage of money managers that includes Warren Buffett's partners and teachers, so he has no trouble arguing that people who select stocks in this way can do better than they would investing in an index fund. His examples and illustrations provide a sparkling flow of insights and principles. John Bedford Lloyd's delivery makes even the technical information sound exciting, grounded in real life, and easy to incorporate into a buy-and-hold investing philosophy. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine