Modern Security Analysis: Understanding Wall Street Fundamentals

This is Whitman's magnum opus. It summarizes, updates, and expands Whitman's thought that he has been developing for years (decades?). This book is probably over the head of a beginner so if you are trying to get your fellow home-gamer to break into investing do not gift this book to him or her. If you are already a sophisticated investor you will still need the patience of Job to trudge your way through this tome. In short this is not light reading. Most of the propositions are debatable and my hunch is Whitman likes it that way. For instance the distinction he makes between an investment and a speculation is really stretching it but every person who has made this attempt has failed so I will not cast the first stone at Whitman either. Although I think that Carret, in his book on speculation, makes the distinction better you can sure tell that Whitman does not treat the distinction in a thoughtless manner. No Whitman is a deep thinker no doubt about it. For those of us who are students of investing much of this stuff is obvious. And yet... Whitman's take on the obvious is so original, deep, and thoughtful that he makes the obvious unique and wonderful. Note the tribute to Benjamin Graham in the title but even if you are not a Graham or Dodd value investor this book is great food for thought. Traders, momentum players, and trend followers might get bored and find their eyes glazing over but it is good to know thy enemy so they should read it anyway. Think of it as trader medicine: it might taste like crap but it is good for you. Bicker your way through this book if you must but you will find it rewarding especially if you are a fundamentalist.Dr. Victor Lee Burke Ph.D.Economic and Investing Sociologist: Yep there really are such people hey look at the founder of the hedge fund.

This book is the pinnacle of value investing for modern times. Martin Whitman is a legend in the stock market.

Unlike most investing books of today and of the last 10-years, or so, most view managements solely as operators of businesses. The authors in Modern Security Analysis appraise managements too for their competencies as operators, but additionally as investors and maybe more importantly as financiers. These attributes are a very important analysis feature with the authors.If you have not read other works by Marty Whitman, then a brief outline to this book may assist the future reader - (so, after reading the introduction and first few chapters) one may first want to start in Part 2 <Safe & Cheap Investing>, then go back to the beginning and dig in a little more. Considering that this book is for the more serious investor and is structured as a textbook for an investment course, one does not need to read straight thru like a traditional investment book.As for the Safe & Cheap Investing method, considerable time is spent on the importance of the financial position of the security under consideration. This margin-of-safety approach is detailed as to the benefits of such an investment style. In addition, even though the authors do state their differences with the Graham & Dodd methods, in the end this reviewer believes they are more connected at the hip than their stated differences may imply, or indicate.After identifying a potential Safe & Cheap investment, a great deal of the material in this book discusses the -- what can be done with these cheap assets. The authors state "we tend to de-emphasize operating factors, or rather, give resource conversion factors greater importance for most companies most of the time." Or in layman's english, just earning an extra 5-10% out of the assets is not the object here. Determining if another CEO, investor, or financier can materially improve the value of the assets is the object of this effort - (e.g. resource conversion).All in, if you are willing to spend the time and do the work, whether reading annuals, 10-Ks, 10-Qs, then reading this book will assist you in becoming a better investor with your investing activities. However, this trip is not recommend for the casual weekend reader. Disclosure: This book is more of a compilation of previous works by the authors with updated thoughts and reviews. Other reference and fine books are as follows:The Aggressive Conservative Investor (Wiley Investment Classics) by Martin WhitmanValue Investing: A Balanced Approach (Frontiers in Finance Series) by Martin WhitmanSecurity Analysis: Principles and Techniques by Benjamin Graham and David DoddApplied Value Investing by Joseph Calandro, Jr.Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond (Wiley Finance) by Bruce C. N. Greenwald

I really wanted to like this book. I really wanted to get something from it. I read the whole thing.This book is pretentiously written and spends half the pages talking about how their philosophy is differerent from Graham and Dodd.I never for one second got the feeling that the author wanted me to learn something. When I read Graham and Dodd, Greenblatt, Carlisle... I get the feeling that they wanted me to learn something, or they were exploring something. Marty Whitman's book gives none of that. Skip it move onto the next oneThe sentence structure is awful. The paragraphs never end. There is no point to half the paragraphs. I have to re-read everything 3x to try to understand what is being said --- and most of the time it is nothing.There are no case studies to speak of. Save youreself the time.

This book arrived in prestine condition. It is different version of Security Analysis, from Graham & Dodd and Cottle.

bought the book but it awaits reading.