Investment Philosophies: Successful Investment Philosophies and the Greatest Investors Who Made Them Work

"Damodaran is a well-informed scholar with a gift for organized, clearly written syntheses of complex topics in modern finance. With Investment Philosophies he provides the uncensored facts about winning in the market place. If you are a fund manager, an investor, or simply a student of finance, you will want to read this book." -Tom Copeland Managing Director of Corporate Finance, Monitor Group "Professor Damodaran has zeroed in on the most important missing element of many investment management processes: a clearly defined investment philosophy which can serve as a beacon in difficult markets. He offers a cornucopia of philosophies and strategies that have worked for many of the most successful investors, and which have stood the test of time." -Rob Arnott Chairman, First Quadrant, LP; Editor, Financial Analysts Journal "As an investor, I always have to look back to my philosophy and strategy for taking risk and making money. This book is an invaluable aid for 'taking stock' before buying stock. It lays out the concepts and tools for understanding the basics of risk and return in the stock market, and presents a framework for any investor to construct his or her own investment philosophy." -Mitch Julis Managing Partner, Canyon Capital Advisors Choosing an investment philosophy is the heart of successful investing. To make the choice, though, you need to look within before you look outside. In Investment Philosophies: Successful Strategies and the Investors Who Made Them Work, Aswath Damodaran will help you do this by going beyond the simple explanations of traditional and alternative investment strategies, to discuss the individual underlying philosophies that support these techniques. Investment Philosophies explores many of the time-tested strategies that have allowed investors to reap rewards over the years, including value investing, growth investing, technical analysis, market timing, arbitrage, and indexing. Choosing an investment philosophy is the heart of successful investing. To make the choice, though, you need to look within before you look outside. In Investment Philosophies: Successful Strategies and the Investors Who Made Them Work, Aswath Damodaran will help you do this by going beyond the simple explanations of traditional and alternative investment strategies, to discuss the individual underlying philosophies that support these techniques.Investment Philosophies explores many of the time-tested strategies that have allowed investors to reap rewards over the years, including value investing, growth investing, technical analysis, market timing, arbitrage, and indexing. Since the inception of the financial markets, investors have been bombarded with sales pitches from experts claiming to have found the secret formula or the magic model that guarantees investment success. In one corner, you have seasoned veterans telling you to buy businesses with solid cash flows and liquid assets because that's what worked for Warren Buffett. In another, you have financial professionals advising that in the new world of technology, you have to bet on companies with solid growth prospects. And still others recommend passive index investment as the way to outperform most active investors, or nontraditional investment strategies that have worked for a select group of successful hedge funds. The only thing this barrage of claims and counterclaims has created is investor confusion.To successfully implement any investment strategy, you must first adopt an investment philosophy that is consistent at its core and which matches not only the markets you choose to invest in, but your personal preferences (risk tolerance, time horizons, etc.). In Investment Philosophies: Successful Strategies and the Investors Who Made Them Work, Aswath Damodaran will help you do this by going beyond the simple explanations of traditional and alternative investment strategies, to discuss the individual underlying philosophies that support these techniques. Investment Philosophies explores many of the time-tested investment philosophies that investors have used over the years -- from value investing and growth investing to technical analysis and market timing -- and discusses some of the investors who made these philosophies work. This unique book will expose you to a wide range of investment philosophies to give you a sense of what drives investors in each philosophy, how they attempt to put these philosophies into practice, and what determines ultimate success. Damodaran offers an unbiased forum for the presentation of different investment philosophies, while supplying you with the tools -- the definition and measurement of risk, the notion of market efficiency and how to test for inefficiencies, the components and determinants of trading costs -- and the empirical evidence to make your own judgments on the investment philosophy that fits your specific investment goals and views of how markets work. Filled with valuable insights, useful formulas, and comprehensive charts, this book provides you with the tools to pick an investment philosophy that is right for you. With Investment Philosophies as your guide you can be more confident in the way you or your fund managers invest. The philosophy behind the best investment strategies of all time Investment philosophies are as unique as the individuals who practice them. In his latest endeavor, investment expert and NYU Stern School of Business professor Aswath Damodaran goes beyond investment strategies and looks at the individual underlying philosophies that support these techniques. He explores all of the time-tested investment philosophies that have worked over the long run, and discusses the greatest investors who made these philosophies so famous. Investment Philosophies will expose readers to a wide range of investment philosophies so as to give them a sense of what drives investors in each philosophy, how they attempt to put these philosophies into practice, and what determines ultimate success. In doing this, Damodaran provides an unbiased forum for the presentation of different investment philosophies, while supplying the tools-the definition and measurement of risk, the notion of market efficiency and how to test for inefficiencies, and the components and determinants of trading costs-and the empirical evidence for readers to make their own judgments on the investment philosophy that fits their specific investment goals and views of how markets work. Filled with valuable insights and expert advice, this book reveals various investment philosophies to a general audience of investors, not purely to professional investors. Aswath Damodaran (New York, NY) is Professor of Finance at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. He is the author of Applied Corporate Finance ( 0-471-33042-6) and Investment Valuation ( 0-471-41488-3). "Investment Philosophies explores many of the time-tested investment philosophies that investors have used over the years - from value investing and growth investing to technical analysis and market timing - and discusses some of the investors who made these philosophies work. This unique book will expose you to a wide range of investment philosophies to give you a sense of what drives investors in each philosophy, how they attempt to put these philosophies into practice, and what determines ultimate success. Damodaran offers an unbiased forum for the presentation of different investment philosophies, while supplying you with the tools - the definition and measurement of risk, the notion of market efficiency and how to test for inefficiencies, the components and determinants of trading costs - and the empirical evidence to make your own judgments on the investment philosophy that fits your specific investment goals and views of how markets work.". "Filled with valuable insights, useful formulas, and comprehensive charts, this book provides you with the tools to pick an investment philosophy that is right for you."--BOOK JACKET. Cover 1 Chapter 1 2 Chapter 2 16 Chapter 3 44 Chapter 4 76 Chapter 5 110 Chapter 6 141 Chapter 7 172 Chapter 8 220 Chapter 9 269 Chapter 10 313 Chapter 11 353 Chapter 12 392 Chapter 13 435 Chapter 14 478 References 488