Getting Started in Security Analysis

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introductry book with too many errors
Review: Excellent introductry book. However, there are too many errors in this book -- all formulas need to be checked and corrected.

Rating:
Summary: Good way to start
Review: The book was pretty basic, and it made me curious to learn more. With the new background, I checked out a few more advanced books, and settled on "Security Analysis on Wall Street," by Jeff Hooke. I trade a fair amount andf I'm starting to do more analysis before buying stocks.

Rating:
Summary: Very broad; Slightly out-of-focus
Review: ``Getting Started in Security Analysis'' is definitely worth reading, especially if you are generally new to economics and finance. He covers a broad range of issues: reading a balance sheet; interpreting economic indicators; evaluating debt. All worth knowing, and his mathematics is decent (as long as you stay alert--there are some minor errors).

At the same time, I found the book giving me an off taste. I'm interested in value investing, which looks at stock as a piece of a business, and doesn't care about fluctuating stock prices or predictions of the future. Klein certainly discusses the value of businesses, but he gets into those other things as well. For example, he suggests that predicted future earnings are ``even better'' than past earnings for evaluating a company. Sure, if the prophet Isaiah is making the prediction! Klein seems a little too market focused for me, and it keeps me from enjoying his book as much as I should.