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

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: "Just a spoonful of color would have made the investment philosophies go down, in the most delightful way." To paraphrase nanny Mary Poppins' advice to add honey to nasty-tasting medicine, you may wish that this informative tome was more colorfully written, but you could not wish for a more solid dose of information. Aswath Damodaran backs up his explanations of investing philosophies with ample studies, detailed graphics and a website, even if you need to absorb the dense, detailed data in 15 minute chunks. This well-researched, solid book will be useful to individual investors, investment managers and anyone who wonders why various investment philosophies succeed and how (and at what risk) portfolio gains are made. The index investing chapter and the final summary are required reading for investors wondering how huge portfolios crashed after U.S. equities collapsed. We recommend this soup-to-nuts introduction to sophisticated investing. Your financial security could hinge on a good grasp of the issues it covers.

Rating:
Summary: A very good overall review of finance theory
Review: A well written book offering a very good overview of financial theory and its implications from a practioner's point of view. It takes you from the ground up: starting with valuation issues reaching asset management and investment strategies. The book covers hot contemporary issues in finance, such as behavioral finance.

In my opinion, it is equally well suited for professionals, finance students and sophisticated investors. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A very good overall review of finance theory
Review: A well written book offering a very good overview of financial theory and its implications from a practioner's point of view. It takes you from the ground up: starting with valuation issues reaching asset management and investment strategies. The book covers hot contemporary issues in finance, such as behavioral finance.

In my opinion, it is equally well suited for professionals, finance students and sophisticated investors. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive
Review: Investment Philosophies is one of the best investment books I have ever read. It is both informative in the sense that it contains detailed information, and in the sense that it proposes a theoretical framework for thinking about investing. My only complaint is that Damodaran did not cover more investment philosophies (he considers 7). However that is not a big enough complaint to take away even a half a star let alone a full one.

The book is broken down into two segments. The first gives a primer in finance theory which is useful to those who are beginners as well as those with more intermediate knowledge. The first segement is essentially a mini-textbook on finance related to investments. It is extremely handy and very well laid out. The second segment of the book uses the tools developed in the first to analyze various investment philosophies. Damodaran bases 95 percent of all his arguments on academic research. That is, he does not make any claims without backing them up.

There is little new information in this book, although there are the results of a few very recent research projects. The value of this book is in the organization of information already available, and of course in the theoretical framework of the "investment philosophy" that he lays out. It is important to note that Damodaran's definition of investment philosophy is not without dispute. Most investmentment philosophies used in practice do not meet his criteria. So, he is really making an argument for looking at investment philosophies in a new way. It is my belief that this new way is far, far superior to what is currently in use.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Book!!!
Review: Lot of research has been put into this book. Explains Adavantages and disadvantages of the tools used for investing.

Highly recommended!!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on a good topic
Review: The best thing about the book is it does not offer shallow remedies like "get rich in 30 days" ot " how to become a millionaire", but offers a more academic assement of the philosophies followed by disciplined investors. He fits it nicely in to theoretical framework. I think Damodaran wants to show the relevance of the theoretical knowledge in the strategies folled by these investors.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on a good topic
Review: The best thing about the book is it does not offer shallow remedies like "get rich in 30 days" ot " how to become a millionaire", but offers a more academic assement of the philosophies followed by disciplined investors. He fits it nicely in to theoretical framework. I think Damodaran wants to show the relevance of the theoretical knowledge in the strategies folled by these investors.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointingly narrow-minded
Review: This book is an excellent very basic introduction to Finance Theory as currently taught in business schools. It is also a well organised overview of a few different trading styles eg value vs technicals.
My reservation is that he leaves the reader with the impression that MPT is the only way of looking at markets and examines all trading styles within that framework. Thus he has only one philosophy and a list of techniques. In fact many of the investment greats have deep philosophical and methodological differences which are not acknowledged.
For example without any qualification, risk is defined as volatility. Despite having Buffett on the front cover there is no reference to the fact that Buffett completely disagrees with that definition and has contempt for the theories that are taught at Business Schools.