LEARN JAVASCRIPT QUICKLY: CODING FOR BEGINNERS - JAVASCRIPT PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE, A QuickStart eBook, Tutorial Book with Hands-On Projects, In Easy Steps! An Ultimate Beginner's Guide! by JJ TAM. Rated undefined out of 5 stars, with undefined ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the javascript category.

If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript[IF HEMINGWAY WROTE JAVASCRIPT][Paperback] by AngusCroll. Rated undefined out of 5 stars, with undefined ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the javascript category.

All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare and Sheba Blake. Rated 3.7 out of 5 stars, with 14 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the J. K. Rowling category.

Die Schwarzen Perlen - Folge 11: Unschuldig verurteilt (German Edition) by O. S. Winterfield. Rated 5 out of 5 stars, with 4 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Nicholas Sparks category.

The Brave: A Novel by Nicholas Evans. Rated 4.1 out of 5 stars, with 200 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Nicholas Sparks category.

Der Gefangene (German Edition) by John Grisham , Bernhard Liesen, et al.. Rated 4.1 out of 5 stars, with 40 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the John Grisham category.

The Chef by James Patterson and Max DiLallo. Rated 3.9 out of 5 stars, with 740 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the John Grisham category.

The Complete Guide To Stephen King Issue 01 by Wall Periodicals Online. Rated undefined out of 5 stars, with undefined ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Stephen King category.

Blaze: A Novel by Stephen King. Rated 4.4 out of 5 stars, with 787 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Stephen King category.

Introduction to Programming in Java: An Interdisciplinary Approach by Robert Sedgewick and Kevin Wayne. Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars, with 8 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the 'Java programming' category.

Java Swing by Marc Loy , Robert Eckstein , et al.. Rated 4.1 out of 5 stars, with 50 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the 'Java programming' category.

Python For Kids For Dummies by Brendan Scott. Rated 3.9 out of 5 stars, with 29 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the 'Python programming' category.

The Unix Programming Environment (Prentice-Hall Software Series) by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike. Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars, with 73 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Ruby programming category.

Let It Go: My Extraordinary Story - From Refugee to Entrepreneur to Philanthropist by Stephanie Shirley and Richard Askwith. Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars, with 34 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Go programming category.

I am a Finance MBA and Buffettphile and this book barely held my attention. They did a very poor editing job. The numerous errors detract from the work. A lot of "Buffett-like" and "Buffett-style" speculation but not so much Buffett.

The book is lacking in too many areas to illustrate them all. I'll use the chapter on merger arbitrage as an example. Mr Altucher mentions some studies on merger arbitrage and how you can improve your success rate. He completely fails mention Graham's criteria for entering a merger arbitrage transaction as stated in the Intelligent Investor. The criteria are annualized 20% expected return and an estimated success probability of 80% or greater. Buffett probably still uses these. His overall treatment of merger arbitrage is woefully superficial. Anyone can calculate the return on capital if the merger succeeds. How do you determine the expected return on capital if the merger fails? How can you determine the implied probability of success from current market pricing? These and many other critical areas to one who practices merger arbitrage are not discussed.

While the book is not written in sufficient detail to actually be useful, Mr Altucher did cite many academic studies that I am anxious to read when I have the time. Mr Altucher, you got me. You put "Buffett" in the title and I bought the book.

This was a wonderful book about Robert Iger's amazing life, career and positive outlook. With so many CEOs who aren't always good people, good for their business or don't care for their employees, it is a breath of fresh air to hear from someone who is grounded in reality, treats people the way they should be treated, forward thinking and committed to quality and his customers. His insights to years at ABC are fascinating, horrifying, and give an insightful look at the evolution of a major network.

His Disney career was frought with challenges, but he rose above them and remained the better man. His visionary view of knowing that the stale model Disney operated under needed to be upended. Many criticized his choices, decisions and views, but they were proved spectacularly wrong. I loved the stories about Steve Jobs, the acquisition of Pixar and how things turned around. My favorite parts of the book were about Marvel and Star Wars, since I am a huge fan of both. The tremendous success of Marvel films lies in the fact the films are made by fans for fans and are high quality with strong stories, wonderful characters and excellent production. He mentions Black Panther as one of his personal favorite projects, not believing naysayers that claimed films about women and blacks would not do well. The incredible success of both films proved him right. Despite some Star Wars fans misgivings, I am grateful that Disney bought Lucasfilm and gave us new Star Wars content. New films, books and shows are being created and I have already signed up for Disney +. As I write this, it was just announced that Marvel's Kevin Fiege will be working on a Star Wars film. I can't wait for that, it Wil be epic!
Throughout the book, he shares his tips for successful business and management. A good portion is common sense, which is in short supply in many areas. I read this book using immersion reading while listening to the audio book. Mr. Iger reads two portions at the beginning and end of the book and is a wonderful narrator. The rest of the book is ably handled by Jim Frangione. A wonderful, positive life affirming, uplifting read.

I want to start off by saying that I'm not a follower of Tony's motivational literature. When I was younger my mother purchased some of his books and tapes and while they were somewhat inspiring, I never was one to draw my "passion for life" reading any book other than the Bible. I couldn't tell you what Tony's done or written since his 'Get the Edge' series that was mass marketed on television back in the late 90's.. but I can tell you what I'm pleasantly surprised with, and frankly glad I'm I came across this new finance book because a few of the chapters are "worth their weight in gold." These are Chapters 2 and 5, but please continue reading my review to understand why.

-To give you some background I've been reading personal finance books since the late 90's starting with titles like 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' by Robert Kiyosaki, 'Automatic Millionaire' by David Bach, every Dave Ramsey and Ben Stein title ever written, most of Larry Burkett's scripture based Business and Finance books and Crown Financial information, Random Walk down wall street, etc. etc. To make a long story short let's just say I've read dozens of personal finance or retirement books starting from age 16 up until my present age of 31 so I can tell when something is new or old fluff, or just plain made up. I've also an investor so I have skin in the game.

-Some people are reading these reviews and they just want to know if this book will help them manage their money or make money, and to cut to to the chase yes this book can both make you alot of money and save you even more money. After reading Tony's book I've placed it among the top 10 personal finance titles I've ever read and that list reads like the who's who of books that can actually make a huge impact on the financial future of the average American. If you don't like to read it doesn't matter, just buy the book and read Chapter 2 and 5 and then give it to a friend or delete it, but just read those two chapters.

-What makes this book so valuable and easily worth the price I paid ($12 on Kindle). Let me summarize, and we're going to throw out all the chapters and information that was motivational jargon because I didn't buy this book to be motivated on living life to the fullest and I don't think most of you reading this did either.

1. THE INTERVIEWS. Most of these interviews were not rehash's of what you could find in other books, and a couple of them could be downright life altering if people were to employ some of the advice given by a few of the men or start to follow a few of these men with regard to what they are doing with their investments. The possible life-changing and or interviews that offered terrific advice, tidbits of information that could save you time and money, stock market psychology, and or getting insight into those with your interest at heart. If you browse Yahoo finance and or blogs you can occasionally glean tidbits of gold regarding finance wisdom from some of the best of the best who have both integrity and the average joe investor in mind when they are giving out advice. These are some of the men who realize that most people who need this information are not making a 6 figure income and yet while most of them have wealth in the 7 figure range they don't forget about the rest of us and want to help us to avoid mistakes with our money.

Carl Icahn. Rarely does this man give longer interviews, but Tony Robbins just may have one of the best interviews ever done with Carl Icahn. Carl Icahn is an activist investor. This type of investor attempts to take control of companies they believe are underperforming(usually due to poor management) and then take them over or make changes that will benefit both the shareholder and the activist. As a result in most cases employees and customers benefit also. Carl Icahn is one of the few power brokers on Wall Street who by following you can make quite a bit of money because he will make a poorly operating company do better by holding management accountable, and as a result he has and will continue to help the American People by making our companies more efficient and better which can enrich everyone. After you read this interview you will understand why it's important to follow the moves this man makes.

David Swensen. Great interview, a good overview of asset allocation and risk management, shows why playing it safe for a long time is smart. Great tidbits to learn.

Ray Dalio. Just getting the broken down into easy terms "All Weather Portfolio" is worth the price of the book alone and much more. This information is covered in Chapter 5. He must have owed Tony a huge debt to give out this information. Next to an index fund this is the best portfolio I've ever seen and the results it has brought prove it. You won't find anything better, but most people should have a broad ranged index fund before attempting to copy an allocation like the all weather.

Paul Tudor Jones. Some of the investing psychology(not stock picking advice, but market psychology) he gives in his interview is as if you are sitting in a premier top 10 MBA rated program's class and studying under his stock market tutelage. You simply can't hear these things anywhere else and unless your in a very elite group that are getting MBA's at the very top finance schools you probably never will.

John Bogle. What more can anyone say, he revolutionized investing for the common man by introducing the index fund and if you don't have one you really need one ASAP. Watch every interview with John Bogle you can find on youtube if you want a quick study in long term investing with the best possible outcome for the average person. I personally believe John Bogle has made more of an impact on the finances of the average American than anyone in history ever has or ever will, he truly is both a pioneer and a sort of modern day hero who put the common man above greed and reshaped Wall Street and investing forever.

Warren Buffet. I can tell in this interview Mr. Buffet was just doing Tony a favor by giving a short interview to a friend but he didn't really give any advice you couldn't find anywhere else nor did he dive into any strategies or ideas for the common person. I put him with these others because of his track record. If you purchase a few of his BRK-B stock shares and hold them for a very long time you will probably do pretty well, but Warren Buffet would tell all average investors to get an index fund and not try their hand at picking stocks. He basically will mimic what John Bogle says in most of his interviews but John Bogle goes much deeper, is more interesting, has more integrity, and just does it better.

-Yes a few of the interviews were not very good and I discuss those below. They in my opinion revealed little information, did not know how to convey investment advice to the average person, or just came across as sort of a self pat on the back in my opinion and wouldn't make much impact to the future financial wellness of the reader. Remember, just because someone is ultra wealthy in no way means they have you interest in mind nor can their advice or circumstances be applied to your own life.

-These people from this book in my opinion who you shouldn't listen to include:

Marc Faber(Commodities speculator who is a very shrewd and astute insider, I don't think he can be trusted personally, but when it came to giving advice he came across as a guy just throwing information out there just to give an interview almost as if he wasn't really sure what to say, like he was picking random numbers out of his head and giving them to Tony.)

T. Boone Pickens (Just talks about himself most of the interview, you can find better advice elsewhere.)

Kyle Bass (Made most of his money off an incredible speculation and talks about purchasing millions in nickels with little information given for the regular investor. It's my belief he either isn't very knowledgeable when it comes to investing for regular people or he simply cannot convey the information in a manner with tools he has never used for the average person. He is an algorith based trader and has access to both tools and information most people don't have. I would never listen to his advice based upon his history even though he is successful, his success cannot be repeated.

-I group these next three together because their interviews mainly went through their personal histories and discussed why the success occurred and the importance of integrity and a customer first approach in the finance world:
Mary Callahan Erdoes, Charles Schwab, Sir John Templeton (Mostly discusses the type of work ethic, integrity, and fortitude needed to be successful and also to leave a legacy for your family or people who's money you are investing.

-So what makes this book so valuable, and why am I saying you must include this in your collection if you're a person under 50 looking to improve your finances.

2. Simply because of Chapter 2 and Chapter 5.

-Chapter 2 covers some of the things you've read in other finance books before, usually John Bogle's or Ben Stein's, but it discusses the Myths of the market and advisor fees. It discusses investment broker actual returns and debunks many of the common beliefs among the uneducated majority regarding how to make money with investing or retirement plans. The way this chapter is organized regarding the myths of the market and annuities is invaluable. The information on annuities for anyone under 50 is pure gold, and I have yet to see even a handful of books that ever covered the Annuity, which is starting to grow like wildfire and probably the best option for most of us with less than $500,000-1,000,000 at retirement.

-Chapter 5. This is the best chapter of the book bar none. Ray Dalio's all weather portfolio is simply unmatched and having an in-depth guide of why and how it was designed, and then actually broken down into easy to understand choices is truly incredible. Yes you can and should invest in an Index Fund, and by now we know that 95% of portfolio managers will never beat the stock market over a long time frame such as 20-30 years, but the all weather portfolio created by Ray Dalio's team just may give you better or at least safer returns with less downside risk than even a broad market index fund. I'm still left wondering how Tony got them to do this and give up this much information on this fund. On top of that, there is a larger annuity and retirement information section which goes in depth on the importance of the 3 year window into retirement and how just the stock market return of the first 3 years of a person's retirement can make or break them, and WILL... unless they read the information on annuities.

-On top of all this great information, section after section has Tony giving good links on how to access both more information. Going through this book you can see that Tony actually cares to help the uneducated average investor gain the tools to invest both wisely and and safely. Most finance books give you the what to do(or at least attempt to), but Tony's goes beyond and actually gives you both tools and the where to go to get more information and possibly help.

-To top of these great chapters there is also a chapter on the future of American technology which goes into the advances being made in healthcare and engineering with the creation of 3D printers and how people are continually living longer so what we do with our money today is very important for a potentially long tomorrow. On top of this unlike many finance books, Tony goes into the importance of giving and how it can change a person's life and bring more fulfillment far beyond any dream or desire to be rich. Tony actually explains how and why giving is so important, and it's refreshing to see even a non Christian hold such a high view of giving our time and resources back to those who are less fortunate.

So take my review for what you will, as someone who's read dozens of finance books and will only give applause to something that is both different and worth reading and knowing. I believe this book is very good just for those 2 chapters, especially if you are under 50 and have a long term horizon to invest with and haven't made tons of mistakes yet. For those who ar e older they undoubtedly should discuss retirement with a financial planner and look into insurance/annuities and stable funds. Below I will list my top Finance guru's and what I believe are some of the must read books in this field that all have information that can change your financial future as this book can do.

Best personal finance guru's, the very best of the best who's work you must read and I will include one book from each. These people have care about the common investor above selling books or making money. While some of the information may be a little outdated in one or two of these books, these are still the best of the best by far.

Must reads for personal finance with investment advice also
John Bogle (The Little book of common sense investing, watch his interviews on youtube or yahoo)
Larry Burkett (The complete guide to managing your money, planning for Retirement, Business by the Book)
Ben Stein (How to retire comfortably, The little black book of investing, how to ruin your financial future, most of his books)

Great books on investing that don't cover personal finance
Burton Malkiel (A Random Walk down Wall Street)
William Bernstein (The Four Pillars of Investing)

Honorable Mentions for personal finance, financial lifestyle etc.
Dave Ramsey(We all know about his books, very good for basic advice regarding personal budgeting, not better than the previously mentioned writers or their titles though)
David Bach (Automatic millionaire, Fight for your Money)
Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad)
Ramit Sethi (I will teach you to be rich)
Thomas Stanley (Millionaire next door)

Are there any people you should be watching when it comes to how they are investing their money?
Only two in my opinion. Warren Buffet and Carl Icahn. Both of their basic stock offerings are in the 100's still. I believe Carl Icahn's IEP is up over 1000% since inception and Buffet's BRK-B is up 24% this year alone. Watch what Warren Buffet does because he has insider access to large changes in the economy and the government, and watch Carl Icahn because he creates huge changes in companies by forcing their management to become better in every way and with that usually comes great returns for shareholders.

Este libro es una maravilla para todos los que estén interesados en mejorar sus finanzas y su vida en general, y esto incluye a las personas que de momento inviertan dinero a menor escala. Para mi personalmente, los tres consejos con mayor importancia son: actuar siempre con la mente calmada, invertir en si mismo y compartir con los demás. Se trata de fortalecerse uno mismo, de poder prosperar gracias a eso, y entonces de usar lo acumulado para el mayor bien de [email protected] A mejorar: La letra del back cover y, según mi percepción como nativo alemán, corregir unas faltas de ortografía dentro del libro. No obstante, doy cinco de cinco estrellas. Muchas gracias :)

Es una basura, literalmente. Muchísimo relleno para explicarte 4 cosillas y ni siquiera te enseña realmente a valorar una empresa.. A no ser que seas muy muy muy principiante y no tengas ninguna idea de contabilidad no lo recomiendo en absoluto. Es tirar el dinero a la basura

Ai principianti o a coloro che non utilizzano strumenti finanziari la lettura del libro instillerà la convinzione che in fondo sia semplice diventare miliardari: fare arbitraggio!

Semplice se hai gli strumenti per farlo, che ci vuole? Ti fai prestare i soldi a tassi minimi, acquisti titoli azionari sul mercato e li vendi a chi lancia un'OPA a prezzo superiore.
L'incasso, dedotti i costi e gli interessi, è strabiliante! chiunque potrebbe arrivare a fare il 55% all'anno.
Proprio così: chiunque abbia collaterali da dare a garanzia per ottenere i prestiti (non sanno cosa sia il credit crunch?), abbia informazioni privilegiate (magari in quanto azionista di un paio di agenzie di rating e diriga un team di analisti) operi in un mercato aperto all'investitore come quello americano e sia in grado di sapere in anticipo (chiaroveggente) che su una determinata azione sarà lanciata un'OPA. Il tutto nauralmente senza infrangere le norme in materia di market abuse

E chi ci spiega che è così facile fare soldi non è poi in grado di fare un semplice calcolo di interesse composto annualizzato. Infatti, partendo da un 5% mensile arriva al 60% annuo (5% x 12 = 60%) peccato che uno studente al primo anno delle superiori sappia che la formula dell'interesse composto sia differente e che il tasso annualizzato sia ben superiore.

Il pregio è che, come molti libri del genere scritti da autori americani, è facile da leggere, divertente e dimostra che anche Buffett non disdegna strumenti e metodiche che critica quando sono utilizzati da altri. A livello personale lo considero un libro per rilassarmi

If you collect quotations from one of the broadest thinkers in business who for decades has delivered witty and wise sayings, you cannot really go wrong. The Tao translates as “the way” or “the path” and what we are served here is the way of Charlie Munger, vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and long business partner to Warren Buffett. Munger’s many sayings have over time gained enough status to be christened as “Mungerisms.”

The reference to Taoism is equally apt when it comes to the format of the book. Just as Lao-tzu, the Taoist collection of saying and proverbs, this is a commented assortment of quotations where David Clark, co-writer of the many Buffettology books does the observing and deciphering of the wise musings of the old master. Buffett obviously has a wonderful way with words but I have always enjoyed Munger’s shorter, sharper and more cynical statements more and Clark has done us all a huge service collecting these quotes. It is a book possible to read in one, albeit long, sitting – but please don’t. Take the time to scribble down how Munger’s thoughts reflect on your investments, business and being. Does this make sense to you? If so, how are you living up to it? What can you change? What can you improve?

The selected quotations are grouped into four parts covering investing, banking and the economy, business and philosophizing on life at large. Sections one and three are delivered with authority and Ben Graham’s saying that investing is the most intelligent when it is most businesslike springs to mind. At the same time the investing of Munger and Berkshire Hathaway is hardly unknown material due to the vast coverage of Buffett’s investing success.

The danger with adding commentary is that it isn’t always better to say something in a lengthier format when it has already been delivered crisp and clear in a short pitchy way. There is a balance to be kept to not over-explain things. Clark is mostly on the right side of the tracks but he delivers rather similar explanations to many of the quotes and is forced to add quite a few “as we have said earlier”.

Further, just as it comes to later commentary of, say old Taoist texts, it is always possible to debate if the interpretation of the original scriptures from one specific scholar is optimal. Occasionally I would have chosen to make alternative reflections. I think the selection of quotes Clark has made is a good one. Perhaps it could have hade been tilted a tad more towards psychology given Munger’s wisdom in the area. There are few real gems missing apart from this favorite on investing “It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid.” – a typical Mungerism in it’s lack of flattery.

The second part of the book is the least interesting - but every time one hears figures about the gross exposure of global derivatives one marvels. The best and most inspiring part is the fourth, on Life, Education and the Pursuit of Happiness. Below are some of our favorites. “Being rational is a moral imperative. You should never be stupider than you need to be”; “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day – if you live long enough – most people get what they deserve” and especially close to our heart “In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time – none, zero. You’d be amazed at how much Warren reads – and how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.” Amen. If you ever find yourself hesitating over a decision, simply ask yourself “What would Charlie Munger do?”

This is a review by investingbythebooks.com

I had heard, as I think everyone else has, that Business Adventures was a favourite book of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. I read the ebook, and I understand a print version will be forthcoming in September.

This book makes me feel as though I'm sitting at the knee of my grandfather, listening to wise recollections.
A writer of articles in the 1950's and 1960, many for the New Yorker, the author intelligently and thoughtfully steps through 12 events, one per chapter.

At first, I thought perhaps I was particularly dense and wasn't getting the message. What held these stories together? Eventually, I realized that the author is not driving home a point, selling anything, or giving advice. His observations leave room for the reader to consider events, their connections, their parallels to today, the importance of character, and the question of morality in business. It was refreshing not to be told what to think.

I enjoyed the stories of Ford's Edsel, Piggly Wiggly, Xerox, Goodrich vs Latex.

The chapter on the federal income tax is particularly relevant, given the wide-spread debate about taxes and modern conversations about the 1%.

John Brooks' perspective is firmly rooted in the past, when the book was written and provides readers opportunity for a sense of omniscience since we can consider ramifications the author himself could not be aware of, at that time.

Details may change. People do not.

This short booklet is rather article.

The content is a bit chaotic, and poorly researched. There could be much more interesting thing written about Warren Buffet. Instead there are some generalities.

I am afraid that you can find better written and more valuable Warren Buffet's biography on Wiki - for free.

As you can see the author had written a number of articles on various topics - from JFK, Holocaust through Ancient Egypt, and nearly all of those articles are rated 1* due to poor research, grammar and writing. This should answer a question if this booklet is worth buying.

The booklet is worth 1*. The second is because I got it for free - for free I just don't like it (2*), but if I had spend money on this - I would hate it and give it 1*.

For those of you that are time-pressed, this is the best book in the Buffettology Series to read in order to glean a few secrets on the investment techniques of the Oracle of Omaha. The workbook covers both the qualitative and quantitative sides of Buffett's value investing approach, and provides the basic techniques one can implement in order to invest with a reasonable amount of success.

The workbook is not exactly the best book on investing that I have read (that title goes to Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor), but in its defense, it does provide a simple to implement investment strategy. Most of the techniques hinge on a few simple ratios and knowledge of simple present and future worth. Additionally, most of the limitations associated with the techniques are clearly and simply stated.

The book has several merits. The chief merit of the book is that its approach to investing is self-contained, and emphasizes the qualitative aspects more than the quantitative aspects. In passing, readers that focus more on Part One of the book and skip Part Two, the quantitative part, could easily obtain a dramatic improvement in their investment results. Written in simple, easy to understand language, the target audience of this book is most likely that individual who depends on the Internet for all of her information on companies, as such sites as Yahoo, MSN and Value Line are routinely cited in the text as sources of information. The book is very well organized, quite possibly with the idea that it would fit the mold of a chapter-a-day format. Most chapters are usually no more than five pages long, with easy, cheesy word problems and true/false questions at the end of most every chapter to reinforce key concepts. The title of each chapter basically states the key concept to be learned, and key points are highlighted at the end of each chapter. Although it provides some theory and rationale for the techniques it attempts to teach, this is kept to a minimum, and the book focuses almost exclusively on application of the techniques. Those readers that are only interested in the methodology can simply skip to the 22nd Chapter titled 'Doing It Yourself: Buffettology Worksheet'. Thus, the book makes every effort to make learning, and ultimately using, the techniques as painless as possible.

The major demerit of this book rests in its insistence on doing all calculations on a per-share basis. But then, this is how much of the information that is easily obtainable through such channels as Value Line and other sources is presented. One minor demerit is that the authors do not seem to be aware of the virtual ubiquity of MS Office, making it possible to perform all of the calculations in the book in one Excel spreadsheet, but then again, this is a minor demerit. Although there were a number of minor typographical and mathematical errors in the book, I am willing to overlook this, as the thinking and reasoning behind any investment proposition is more important, and is clearly presented throughout the book.

Overall, I rate the book to be worthy of reading. It presents a simple and straightforward investment approach, and does not require an advanced degree in rocket science to implement it. All it really requires is a basic understanding of fractions, decimals and percents, and most important, a willingness to think and reason through the investment proposition. However, those of you with strong quantitative backgrounds will be very dismayed with this book (as I was initially), but as I said before, if you focus exclusively on Part One of the book and Chapter 22, then you will see a dramatic improvement in your investment results going forward.

While I can't say that this book was a complete waste of my time and money, it was close enough.

Bill Spetrino does a good job in the beginning of the book telling a story about his childhood and how he had to learn to be creative to make money and basically think outside of the box to set yourself apart of the pack. His stories about how he learned to be a professional gambler are good too and he uses these examples in his book to tell the story of how he figured out how to be a great investor. However, outside of his childhood stories, he does very little in the way of passing on how he learned to be a great dividend investor and how and when he picks his stocks. If anything a lot of the 'advice' he does give is very surface level and if you've read any other books on investing or dividend investing you'll find that what he gives you is VERY surface level and for what you pay for the book pretty disappointing.

What really is the "icing on the cake" is the fact that he uses the book to ADVERTISE and PUSH for you, the reader to subscribe to his newsletter. He even uses phrases like "for six cents an hour let me do the work for you...", "Money Back Guaranteed if you don't like it..." and other things that advertisers of advisory services and newsletter do to get people to buy their services. I'd be Okay with this IF I didn't pay for the book that was supposed to help me be a better investor. Instead I paid for a short story about Bill's life, surface level analysis "skills", and for him to tell me to subscribe to his newsletter. Anyone who gave this book more than two stars has either never read or looked into fundamental or technical analysis or is a paid shill.

I read "Dividend Growth Machine" by Nathan Winklepleck recently. While it was not an all comprehensive book on dividend investing (Nathan even points it out in his book), there's more information that I found useful and actionable than Bill's book. Also, Nathan gives a list of other books suggests that might be worth his reader's time, but he doesn't shill any of them or flat-out says to buy something from them, or him.

I have been a fan of Brett Owens for some time now and after reading hundreds of articles written by him for his Contrarian Outlook and I decided to join his Contrarian Income Report newsletter. I started investing in several of the Closed- end Funds he recommends and for the past year I have been pleased with the dividends and how the stocks are doing in general. He has recommended that we sell a few of the stocks for various reasons and I have followed what he has recommended. In one case the stock price was headed down and we got out before that happened. In another recommendation he said sell and take the profit. I did and made $800.00. When I ran across this book he and Tom Jacobs have written I wanted it. It explains a great deal about the market and how stocks react to good news and bad. It explains how to retire on dividends and leave your principal intact and I am all about that. I retired in 2006 and I have multiple investments. I started with laddered CD's and as they matured the interest rates had dropped to levels I could not accept so I bought a mutual fund which has paid me every month since 2013 but the value of the mutual fund has gone down almost as much as I have been paid. To sell it today I would still be money ahead but I would not get all my principal back so I am holding it and collecting the monthly dividend. I also bought several Annuities one has matured and I bought another one with a different company. I also have a bond fund that provides monthly income. I was invested in the stock market also and just doing fair. I was making money but it was taking for ever using drip plans for several of the better known companies. As interest rates were going down I needed a way to make more income by making my money work harder for me and I found Brett Owens. He has pointed the way to Closed-end Funds and following his advice I am making more money following his Contrarian Income Report advice than I was on my own. I highly recommend you get this book and if you like his advice join his Contrarian Income Report and he recommends certain stocks and tells you what price to pay and if he sees something going wrong he will recommend you sell NOW. On the recommendation he made to sell now I did loose 2% of my investment but for the others I have been averaging a little better that 8%. If you are not like me and have to have the hard copy you can get this book online cheaper and read it then decide if you to want to join his Contrarian Income Report newsletter. He will give you monthly updates and if he sees bad news you will be the first to know it and get out while you still have 98% of your capital intact. I give his book 5 stars. Of the 19 stocks he is currently recommending I own 10 of them. All of them are making me money.

Waste of time. Compared to The Book on Rental Property Investing from BiggerPockets... Which I also bought because I wanted to get as much info as I could... The problem with Mark's book is that is more like a compilation of blog articles. It lacks structure, number crushing, explanations... It's very opinionated... Instead of explaining how to do the math to objectively compare different investment options, he provides a poor example based on his experience and that's it. The math is deferred to online calculators on his blog. There's not a good summary of each chapter or a way to quickly get an idea for example of repair costs... In that repair section in particular, he spends like one or 2 paragraphs talking about his experiences instead of just providing a table for all the numbers that the reader should be aware of...

Also, it's very unrealistic in the sense that he has a lot of tricks that regular mortals won't have which makes rental investing like an unachievable goal... For example, having a realtor license, an extremely good team, finding deals way below the market, etc. Probably good for someone willing to spend most of it's time on this business but not really appealing if you don't want to leave your job...

This is an excellent book which is a collection of excerpts from the annual letter to shareholders from Berkshire. Cunningham has done an superb job of collating this material and extracting the most important sections which give detailed and in depth view of the workings of Buffett and Charlie Munger and lay out his philosophy and his strategies and his evolution as an investor, which I found particularly fascinating. His move from being a Graham clone to his adoption of Fisher's approach and his fine tuning of his criteria for investmnet.He deals with the amazing successes and the numerous failures and mistakes. For anyone interested in improving their investment expertise and learning about Buffett's approach this is an absolute must. A book that I shall revisit time and again.The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Investors and Managers

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, ClydeBank Media!

Oh, boy. This was a good book overall, but I definitely have some Opinions on it.

First, the good.
1. This is truly an absolute beginner's guide to investing. When many books say that they're a beginning guide to fill-in-the-blank topic, a lot of times they're only sort of right in that they expect you to know some definitions and some basic idea of the topic already. Not so with this book. Probably the book's greatest strength is that it starts from the very beginning. In that vein...
2-3. I loved how the first few chapters had really great fundamentals of investing, including really great definitions and little story problem math examples on how the various items worked.
3. The chapter on various financial statement analysis metrics was another very good introduction to the topic.
4. He had a really good emphasis on not freaking out when your investments are down and selling off based on feelings. Buy low, sell high is a fundamental that you cannot go wrong on. It's just figuring out the highs and lows that can get ya, as is the way that "traditional" investing works.

And the weaknesses. For the sake of full disclosure, many of these items I consider to be weaknesses because I do not agree with the author's strategy of investing. I'll explain as I go.

1. Throughout the book, I felt really confused as to whom this book was meant for. The beginning chapters had all the great definitions and story problems. There was another chapter where he talked about how he as a financial advisor wasn't snobby enough not to want to advise middle class people (vs those advisors that only accept people with over a certain threshold to invest). Those things made me think that this was for the Average Joan like me who wants to save for retirement. But then, there was this whole long chapter on derivatives, futures, options, etc. His warning about how risky these instruments are was not as fear-inspiring as I felt it should have been had this truly been a book for the Average Joan like me. Which also leads into...
2. YOU CANNOT HAVE A DISCUSSION ABOUT ROTH IRAS WITHOUT DISCUSSING NOW VS FUTURE TAX RATES. I'M SORRY, BUT YOU CANNOT. Seriously. The author does not misstate the benefits of Roth IRAs in that their growth is not taxable, but you also have to take into account that if you're waiting until retirement to pull from the Roth, you will PROBABLY have a lower tax rate by then (in which case you should think about putting the bulk of what you can into traditional IRA so that you pay less money in taxes OVERALL IN YOUR LIFETIME.
3. Here's where we get into critiques because I do not agree with the author's overall strategy. The author believes that "The mark of an excellent investor is to consistently outperform the market." Over time, the total stock market average growth is 8%. Why shouldn't I just come up with a good asset allocation and just invest my money in a total stock market index fund?? As the Average Joan investor, I don't have time to perform fundamental analysis for every stock I pick, and I am certainly not going to have any sort of information that gives me any insight that people who actually do this for a living will have. The author briefly mentions indexes, but he doesn't present a compelling case either for or against them. Which brings us to....
4. Fees. There is a short discussion of mutual funds/index funds, but there is NOT ENOUGH EMPHASIS on how actively traded funds include all sorts of micro fees and commissions and everything that absolutely DEVASTATE your investment growth over time. There is no discussion on the numbers behind why you want a fund that has 1% or less in fees as well as being a fund that doesn't generate a high trading volume (back to point 3: as the Average Joan investor, I buy and hold because I'm literally investing in the ENTIRE stock market with my low-cost index fund. Unless the literal apocalypse comes, I'm betting with my money that the market will rally over the long term, and I'd rather have the stability of the entire stock market than have to make guesses about what's going to go up and down in an attempt to beat the market).
5. The author overstates the benevolence/effectiveness of financial advisors. To be fair, he did mention that you should expect your advisor to have an ethics statement as well as to be fully transparent about their fees. However, he did not emphasize enough that they need to be EXPLICIT about whether they are legally required to act as your fiduciary or not. If they're not your fiduciary, there is no incentive for them not to push you into riskier investments where they might have a commission you don't know about. I do concede his point that advisors potentially help keep a client from selling off in times of panic, but you have to have the right advisor.
6. There is a cursory chapter on FIRE at the end of the book. Which is fine, but....due to his own interests of being a financial advisor (and therefore wanting your business to come to his company) there is no discussion on the actual fundamentals about how most FIRE people go about it. There's no discussion of the benefits of index funds and no discussion on safe withdrawal rates (which I consider to be two of the most fundamental parts of most FIRE plans).

So there you have it. As a "traditional" investment book (i.e. pick your specific stocks, use an advisor, etc.) this is a good book. But when there's so much data out there on how likely it is that you will consistently beat the market with your individual investments (view spoiler) I'm just not convinced that my total stock market index fund will be any worse than the alternative. In the words of John Bogle in The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, “Don't look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack!”

I cannot believe I wasted almost 3 minutes scan over this. This doesn't tell you anything beside buying ETF and promo his other books.

There is nothing wrong with buying ETF, but that is not how you out perform the market. Buying ETF is speculation. If you want to invest, you have to do with cashflow, AKA buying someone that give you cash, like dividend. Yes, 3 to 5% dividend seen little, but if you have it compound and also a gain of 3 to 5% of capital gain over the long run will out perform speculation in general. Unless you happened to bought Google and Apple from a decade ago

Super book! Very easy to learn about investing! Makes it simple so you come away with the ability to actually try it out -- invest in a few stocks and watch what happens. Demystifies the whole process for me and my kid! I bought the book to read with my son because he was interested in investing. He's in middle school. We enjoyed reading it together. He could have read it on his own but I wanted to learn how to invest as well. The illustrations make it fun and easy to follow as does the story. My kid could relate to the teens and I was amused by the parents. There are straightforward and easy steps on how to do the math needed -- again, making it so anyone can do this! Really a fun thing to do with my son. I'll give it as a gift too for the right kid! Something unique because it's practical too. Offering kids a chance to make money on their own! Learning a practical life skill.

I bought this book for my son, age 42, who is a Motley-Buffett devotee. I read chapters of it when we go to babysit our 16 month old granddaughter once a week. I like it much better than the Motley's RuleBreaker/RuleMaker book I am simultaneously reading at home. I have been a momentum swing trader and not a value investor, using Vector Vest and a cadre' of other would-be "experts" (free and by subscription) - There is no one right answer in tumultuous times. Learning when to get greedy and when to get fearful and not be talked out of it takes some a lifetime - especially later bloomers - who lacked time or capital before retirement. This book is light and pleasant reading with large enough type for older eyes.

There are two kinds of books on investing like Warren Buffett: the good ones and the rip-off ones. This is one of the good ones. The author adds value by reverse engineering Buffett’s trades, and distilling what he’s found into several stock research checklists:

Business Characteristics
Earnings
Debt
Equity
Profit Margin
Capital Investment
Management
Dividend
Assets
Inventory
Share Buybacks
Insiders
Institutional
Inflation
Cyclical Company
Turnaround
Stock Price

Each of these have several questions, such as “What is the average ROA for the last ten years?”. There’s a tutorial on each question, showing what the author thinks Buffett is looking for. In total there are over sixty questions. To show how this analysis works, he then analyses Infosys Ltd, an IT company.

If you find this interesting, read Buffett himself in Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders.

If you want to invest like Buffett, there are at least three ways you can do it:

1. Buy shares in Berkshire Hathaway.
2. Buy the same shares that he does, when he does. Men Faber describes how to do this in Invest With The House: Hacking The Top Hedge Funds.
3. Use his techniques to find companies in which to buy shares. This book explains how to do it, but you might also look at Invest Like Warren Buffett: Powerful Strategies for Building Wealth.

If you have stumbled across this book while looking for something which explains how to invest your money wisely, you might want to look at my favourite book on investing: Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School.

I would very prescribe it to anybody endeavoring to decode the in many cases beguiling universe of contributing. I observed this book to be the most effectively justifiable breakdown of Warren Buffett's speculation standards. Anybody would have suggested a book on Warren Buffett so am not helping you out by prescribing this. Regardless I keep one of the pages of this book posted in my office since it reminds me once a day of Warren's fundamental venture principles.

The new edition of Andy Kilpatrick's fascinating biography of Warren Buffett, Of Permanent Value, is a large compilation of details about Buffett's life history. There are more than 2,000 pictures throughout the book that add interest to the well-written history of the man, his colleagues, family, and friends.

The author became fascinated with Buffett early on. He set out to document what he learned by writing it all down in this excellent book, adding new information every one to two years. Thus the new 2014 edition is named "Endless Edition" so that the reader is aware that much of what is found here is recent.

I heartily recommend Mr. Kilpatrick's book as an important addition to the reader's library. The reader will enjoy the lay-out, including the easy to read text, the arrangement of chapters, the many quips and conversations between Buffett and his acerbic partner, Charlie Munger, many new and interesting details about his rise to fame and fortune, and fully indexed notes.

I bought this book just before attending the Berkshire-Hathaway Annual Meeting in Omaha, May 2014. I began reading the book before arriving in Omaha and found the information contained within added so much more to my experience at the meeting. I learned that the author attends this meeting regularly and has done so for several decades. I met with him there and gained a new-found admiration for his work on documenting Buffet's life and for his dedication to teaching others through this fine book.

Design of book:

Chapters headings and sections headings are structured to be captivating and clear, making it easy to convey the purposes and meanings of the principles.

Content:

The initial chapters of the book build on some of Buffett's stories and are intended to persuade the reader into following Buffett's principles of investing. You will unfold more of Buffett ways as you read, but most of the essential tips are already mentioned in the first half of the book. The later chapters merely serve as unnecessary elaborations. Principles and examples are also recycled at the later chapters giving readers a feeling that they were reading the book again, before they finished reading.

Buffett debunks the Efficient Market Theory (EMT) by emphasizing on knowing the stocks you buy, buying at a discount and his track records. He also believes that knowledge of basic finances and accounting (GAAP) are necessary to value businesses. However, it will be hard to replicate his success given the difficulties of finding under-valued firms and attaining his wealth of experiences in interpreting annual reports.

For who:

More for first-time readers of Buffett's principles and books, though the author suggests that readers of other Buffett books would find it beneficial as well. Like most books, its persuasive content might not be relevant for readers who are already believers of his principles.

This is also not a `get-rich at once' book. Further readings like The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis (both written by Benjamin Graham) are necessary for savvy investing. Discipline, morals and experiences are also vital when following his principles.

Readers should also have the mature mindset to determine the usefulness of some principles, which might be out-dated in today's context. In fact, the reason behind the popularity of Buffett and his principles are due to his simple and conservative approach towards investing, something which simple people are attracted to at the start.

Warren Buffett: An Extraordinary Life: Follow The Journey, The Lessons, The Rules for Success by Mark Smith. Rated 5 out of 5 stars, with 2 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Warren Buffett category.

I read the rest of these reviews below and was amazed at how little praise the author got for his creative collection of Buffett insight. I have read many books on Buffett and I like how this author has gotten the facts about Buffett out in a simple easy to read manor. I say it is great bathroom reading because you can just open the book to any point and read a few pages to learn about a certain section in Buffett's life. It is true that all of this info is found in other publications about Buffett, but this book is fun to read and teaches you about Buffett the man and what he has learned about life. I think it is a great supplement to the other books about Buffett and is a must have for anyone who is looking to emulate Buffett's life and success.

First off, this was probably the 20th book about (finance, getting rich, making $, etc) I read. For my adult life I struggled with $, debt, bills, etc.
While the info contained within this book certainly is no secret, the story spoke to me in a way that nothing else had. Maybe it was the context, language, or the historical time tested theory, I'm not sure but whatever it was, it resonated.
I started reading this book a few years ago in a hotel room on Christmas eve.
Something about the stories, lessons, and history really spoke to me. I made a commitment and the following year saw me get out of the hamster wheel of debt that I'd been running in since I was 18.... And establish a respectable savings.
Some won't appreciate the stories, some may dismiss the lessons as "common sense" (despite the fact that they aren't applying them and are broke.)
Other stories, lessons, formats, may speak better to you.... That's fine.
But for me,
This book along with the millionaire mind are head and shoulders the two books that have made the biggest impact on me.

The reviewer who said that this book is meant for the "serious beginner" said it best. This is not a fluffy book -- it's more like a 3-month investment course packed into a well-written small volume and designed to make the reader fully conversant in the language of the market. Before I picked up this book, I thought that the Dow was an exchange, like the NASDAQ. No joke. After I read it, I knew more about long-term investing strategies, market terminology, and identifying companies with value than any of my attorney colleagues who have invested in the market for years. Most individual investors seem to invest blindly in large- and mid-cap companies like Target or Apple and in mutual funds without conducting their own research. This book is for you if you want to understand not only why traders care about P/E ratios, but also how you hedge against inflated earnings calculations by analyzing other fundamental criteria, like profit margins; not only how a dividend yield is calculated, but why it matters in determining whether a stock is undervalued; and not only how Dow companies are chosen but also how to reap the benefits of leverage when investing in Dow companies.

That said, this book is not designed for swing traders or day traders. While Jason Kelly claims to espouse both value and growth approaches to investing, I'd say that the balance is 80% in favor of value (identifying good companies with long-term profitability). He explains the fundamentals of technical analysis, but his primary purpose is not to teach how to speculate or predict trends using Bollinger bands or stochastic curves. His point seems to be that an investor should use graphs and technical criteria as just one of her tools to know when to buy, how to limit the downside potential of leveraged investments.

Their isn't much self-promotion. The writing is so clear that it takes the author's personal philosophies out of the equation and focuses instead on the more broadly applicable teaching points (bullet-pointed, even, after each section). If identifying value is not a strategy that appeals to you, you won't like this book. The book is basically a love letter to Warren Buffett and has very little of Kelly jumping off the pages, other than when we mentions his own free newsletter and website in a list of a dozen or so other newsletters and websites. (By the way this list included Kelly's reviews of many stock screener tools, good financial magazines, and the most useful stock newsletters. I used it to build my internet favorites folder, which I look at everyday.)

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of fundamental investing concepts and strategies. You can turn to other, more detailed texts if you want to learn how to trade like a trader, not like an investor.

I'm deeply disappointed that they've gutted this book series.

Gone are all the charts at the beginning that highlighted certain segments of the market. Gone is all the analysis at the beginning of the book that helped contextualize all their picks. Gone is all the explanations for why they picked 17 new stocks this year.

And most importantly, they don't say how their picks matched up to the success of the S&P 500 last year, which was the benchmark they measured themselves against every single year. With the intellectual dishonesty of refusing to compare their picks to the broader index, it reinforces that they are very poor stock pickers, and I shouldn't spend my money on their book, because I'd earn more investing in an index.

This book has been reduced to a glorified blog post. I will never buy it again.

If you’ve ever watched Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger answering questions at a Berkshire Hathaway AGM, one thing that is striking is the combination of breadth and depth. That is, the breadth in the number of topics covered and the depth of the insight. The George Washington University professor Larry Cunningham early on realized the quality of Warren Buffett’s thinking and two decades ago took Buffett’s letters to shareholders, rearranged the writing after topic and created an instant investment classic. The Essays of Warren Buffett is solidly parked on our list of best investment books ever.

In connection to the launch a two-day convention in New York was hosted by Cunningham. Apart from Buffett and Munger a number of well-known investors like Lou Simpson, Bill Ackman, Robert Hagstrom, Bruce Berkowitz and Paul Hilal had the rare luxury of attending the event. A total of 150 persons attended the two days. The arrangement was that an expert panel per subject would start a discussion and pretty soon Buffett, Munger and others would join the discussion. This book is the edited transcript of this symposium.

The topics of the discussions - and the chapters of the book - were corporate governance, finance and investing, mergers and acquisitions and accounting and taxes. Much of the text covers the panelists discussing their take on a specific line of thought that has been presented by one of the others - and that doesn’t necessarily have to be related to the writings of Buffett. It’s a learned and intelligent discussion, which in the academic tradition wiggles forward through trial and error and testing a thesis of a more or less important topic. Often Buffett and Munger are asking questions and learning rather than taking the lead role.

It’s nevertheless when Buffett and Munger now and then join in that the discussion goes from interesting to sparkling. It’s fascinating to view the difference in language. The panelists use an academic prose littered with specialist expressions and with a deep knowledge of detail. Every other line from Buffett and Munger instead reads like a quotation from Yogi Berra. The words glow. The drastic examples, mundane wording and smart metaphors cant hide the fact that Buffett and Munger often capture the essence of what the other panelists painstakingly are trying to arrive at.

While the expert panelists change depending on subject, Buffett and Munger continue to discuss topic after topic on the same high level. Now and then it shines through that the two are very rational in how they spend their time and therefore haven’t fully studied the finer details of matters they don’t think benefit them. For example when Munger quips that he supports the weak form of market efficiency, he probably rather wants to deliver a good punch line than have an opinion on the usefulness of technical analysis specifically. Buffett and Munger have rejected modern portfolio theory on a common sense basis, what is then the use of wasting time studying the details of the theory?

The Buffett Essays Symposium is a short book and it really doesn’t offer new thinking from Buffett or Munger. It’s a nice set of Buffett trivia with plenty of unique pictures but the reader learns little new. I still think it is remarkable how early Buffett and Munger had come to formulate their worldview and how little it changes over the years. Compared to the panelists they more often take a broader societal view, they look to fairness and justice and distils key principles. Then naturally there is little need for change of viewpoint. What’s right is right. I also think Charlie Munger comes more to his right in these discussions compared to playing the role of the drastic side-kick at Berkshire AGMs. His background as a lawyer shines through when he discusses corporate governance structures etc.

The Essays of Warren Buffett is a need to have. Without having read this book you cannot claim to be an intelligent investor. For anyone but the die-hard Buffetteer this symposium book is a nice to have - wrong, a very nice to have - but still.

This is a review by investingbythebooks.com

I couldnt stand to read more than a couple chapters. The writing is horrendous. Reads like it was written by a fourth grader. Theres a reason its free.

... und dabei immerhin so ehrlich, dass der aufmerksame Leser allem Phrasengeklingel des Autors zum Trotz erkennen kann, dass das System dem eigenen Anspruch eben nicht gerecht wird, nämlich systematisch das Risiko aus den Investments herauszunehmen.

Im Einzelnen: das vom Autor vorgestellte System hat eine momentumgetriebene Wachstums- und eine Hedge-Komponente. Gute Idee eigentlich. Er hat den Anspruch, das von Warren Buffett einem breitem Publikum vorgeschlagene Buy&Hold-Modell für den S&P500 (mittlere Rendite in den Jahren zwischen 2008 und 2016 ca. 8,5%) um 3,5% p.a. zu schlagen. Das gelingt dem Autor auch.

In den Backtests.

Wer genau hinsieht, erkennt, dass der Vorteil des "12%-Systems" in den Jahren 2008/2009 entstanden ist. Danach hat es die Performance von Buy&Hold dramatisch verfehlt. in 6 von 10 Jahren war das Halten der Aktien besser als das "Optimieren". Dass am Ende die Gesamtperformance besser war, lag alleine am dramatischen Einbruch der Aktien 2008 und dem nicht minder dramatischen Rebound 2009. EIN EINZIGES Ereignis sicherte dem System also einen Vorteil, alle anderen nachfolgenden Ereignisse führten per saldo zu einem systematischen Nachteil. Für einen Systementwickler ein No-Go-Fact! Ein singuläres Ereignis ist statistisch gesehen kein Ereignis, sondern von Zufall nicht zu unterscheiden - v.a. hinsichtlich seiner Auswirkungen. Von daher: wer Momentum-Ansätze verfolgen möchte, der nimmt das Buch von Antonacci zur Hand, dessen Ideen funktionieren seit ihrer Veröffentlichung auch nicht mehr ;-) ...

Man muss sich einfach klar machen: Momentum-Ansätze folgen dem Gedanken, dass Assets gekauft werden, weil ihr Preis steigt. Laut Warren Buffett das dümmste Argument, ein Asset zu kaufen ... Momentum heißt, der Herde hinterherzulaufen. Das funktioniert oft, ist aber eben auch extrem berechenbar. Wer hin und her handelt, ist ein Teilnehmer an einem Kontrahentenmarkt, der misst sich mit anderen Marktteilnehmern, die ihreseits ebenfalls hin und her handeln. Langfristig entscheidet der Wert eines Assets über die Entwicklung des eigenen Investments, kurzfristig aber entscheidet der Preis. Und der schwankt eben nicht nur, sondern das Verhalten der Masse wird von großen Kontrahenten in diesen Preisschwankungen systematisch ausgenutzt. Scharfe Einbrüche sind für professionelle Marktteilnehmer in einem Nullzinsumfeld eine Einladung zum Einstieg, für Momentumhändler ein Signal zum Ausstieg. So geraten billige Aktien in die Hände anderer Leute - nicht die Situation, in der man sich wünscht auf der Verkäuferseite zu stehen. Genau das passiert aber systematisch bei dem hier besprochenen Modell. Von einer Extrem-Baisse abgesehen, bietet es keinen Schutz gegen Marktschwankungen und erfüllt damit seinen Zweck nicht wirklich. Vielmehr hängt sein Erfolg vom Zeitpunkt des Einstiegs ab und ist daher zufällig. Genau dieser Umstand qualifiziert ein schlechtes System!

Les conseils de Warren Buffett distillés dans ce livre sont comme des lumières dans le monde quelque peu obscur de la finance. Avant d'investir des fortunes sur les marchés il est des plus rentable d'investir quelques euros dans ce guide qui dicte certaines des erreurs qu'il ne faut pas commettre, les règles de bon sens qui permettent de tirer son épingle du jeu très risqué des placements financiers. Et ces conseils sont également utiles pour tout décideur économique qui doit investir, faire un pari sur l'avenir, être un visionnaire, comprendre ce qui fait la solidité et la force d'une entreprise.

Bien sûr on n'apprend pas à nager en lisant des livres de natation mais on apprend quand même mieux en compagnie d'un grand maître, on a ainsi plus de chances d'éviter la noyade !
Même si le difficile est de mettre en pratique ces conseils, par exemple avoir la patience d'investir réellement à long terme sans céder à la tentation de prendre ses bénéfices en vendant ou sans céder à la peur lors d'une petite baisse du cours, (bien qu'il faille à mon avis savoir limiter ses perte et vendre si la baisse est vraiment trop forte pour éviter de tout perdre).

A la fin du livre, on voit ce à quoi Warren Buffet considère ce qu'est la réussite d'une vie, non pas au nombre de milliards qui ont été amassés et qui ne vous suivront pas dans votre cercueil mais "au nombre de personne qui vous aime vraiment", même si quand ont fait un gros chèque on a tendance à vous trouver paré de toutes sortes de vertus...

In this rather long book, the author first gives some background on both Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, his right-hand man, before giving a brief analysis of their investing style. The author then goes on to provide just a little bit of advice about how to manage your portfolio and other stock advice. But the bulk of the book by a large margin is the hundred stocks mentioned in the title. The author does give his choosing criteria based on his analysis of Buffett and Munger’s investing style. This is definitely not a book that you sit and just read straight through. You can do that with the first part, the more theoretical part, but the section on each of the specific stocks themselves should only be taken in small doses. The author made me curious enough that I think it would be interesting to follow these companies to see if he is correct in his assessments. All in all, I found it to be an interesting glimpse into two men who have amassed such wealth, as well as into the mind of the author—whom I’ve read before. I find books were people make analyses like these to be fascinating.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

Bon ouvrage, tout est bien répertorié et détaillé il apporte des éléments qui permettent de sélectionner les entreprises avec le meilleur potentiel. Convient aux débutants comme au plus expérimentés, je le recommande.

Book gives insights about investment tycoon Warren Buffet.. High level details about life of Warren Buffet & how he shaped his company is given perfectly

I’ve read most of the biographies of Warren Buffett, but I consider this to be the definitive biography. There are several reasons. This book has been developed over a period of many years (around 25, at this point) and is the result of dedicated research and writing. The author has access to Mr. Buffett that most writers do not, and you can see this in the various letters and documents that Buffett has provided for publication. Each year, Buffett personally selects a group of books to be sold at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha and every year this book is chosen. This kind of endorsement by Buffett is probably the only reason you really need to pick up a copy.

At the 2016 meeting, one book was selected for “super highlighting” by creation of a giant version of the book cover for display. This is that book. Although I think I keep up with everything going on with Buffett, I am always amazed when I read the updated version and discover new facts. This latest version contains a nice recap of the premiere of the HBO Documentary Becoming Warren Buffett. The insight provided by Mr. Kilpatrick is available because he was there. You probably don’t get invited to a premiere like that without being fairly well-connected. It is this connection you can take advantage of by reading (and re-reading) this book.

There is great humor, insight and information in this book. You'll learn about an incredible personality and be truly entertained in the process. My bookshelf has several books on Warren Buffett, but Mr. Kilpatrick's is my favorite.

Having read several books on Buffett and having done some research of my own, I sometimes wonder whether there is still more to learn about Buffett's investment strategies. Thankfully, this book is very insightful and while the points are not all new, the material is presented in thoughtful and interesting ways. Points such as the importance of superior management, low leverage financing for investors and firms, avoiding listening to most
talking heads, meaning of adequate diversification, emphasis on downside risk while looking for growth prospects, doing a lot of research before buying stocks gives you the conviction to have staying power and patience and will lower the chance you will panic when there is volatility in the stock price, are worth repeating.

I have particularly liked reading a book by an academic since the arguments/points are made in a logical manner consistent with general finance theory. Sometimes when you read stuff written by practitioners, the
reasoning is not entirely logical and sometimes inconsistent with general finance theory.

Prem is a well respected Accounting/Finance Professor and has taught at some of the best schools. Fortunately, he has avoided the dogmatic/ideological positions taken by many academics on the efficiency of markets and he allows for the possibility of above average returns for skilled investors. His personal investing experience may have influenced his opinion on these issues.

Finally, some of the valuation examples appear a bit too approximate. Prem's background in accounting and personal investing experience could be a potent combination that provides rich insight into various valuation aspects and deliver high dividends to his readers.

Buenos consejos finacieros, sin embargo esperaba mucho mas, inclusive algo más técnico!

If you are looking for an easy to read, fast-paced, bulleted, full of magic formulas, and a quick way to make a fortune book, please look elsewhere. If you are new to investing or even a seasoned investor who feels that you really don't have a grasp of the overall investing scheme, and if you are willing to plow through a lot of reading to extract some basic principles of investment analysis, then reading this book could be well worth your money and time. In his own roundabout way, the author will lay out for you concepts and answers to questions that you may not have considered relevant.

Notwithstanding the hype evidenced on the book covers and the introduction by the author's son, a highly-regarded and well-known investment manager, the author has credentials that money cannot buy. That would be fifty years of being a successful , professional, private investment manager. In this book, he will bring that experience into play as well focusing on factors that are not covered by the mainstream financial media, or as he refers to them as "the financial community. "

Here are some basic concepts that that the author will cover in his treatise: He will differentiate between a stock trader and stock investor; He will analyze what to buy and when to buy it; He will explain the movement of stocks in general or of a particular stock; He will argue the merits whether to follow the herd or to do otherwise; He will advise you whether to concentrate on intrinsic or extrinsic factors in evaluating a firm's stock; He will give you his opinion of the value of reading reports of the financial community.

Here are three key questions that he will pose and answer: Should you buy cheap or otherwise? How long should you hold on to hold a stock? When should a stock be sold? The author will provide you with his views on the value of historical prices and earnings. He will correlate stock prices with interest rates. The closest the author will come to using numbers is when he lists his fifteen points of what to look for in buying a common stock. And after listing those points, he will highlight that one point that will override the other fourteen points in not buying the stock. In fact, that one point could very well summarize the book in a single word.

As a reader, you will not get buried in a landslide of financial trivia but will learn general techniques and trends of investment analysis that often aren't considered by the statistically-oriented investors. However, in order to glean these gems of intrinisic stock information, you will have to have to forgo charts, illustrations, tables, and financial data commonly presented in stock analysis.

If you heard about investing (usually a sign we're in a bubble or getting there) and you're thinking of start investing you should start with this book.

It makes a really compelling argument for investing using an index fund and saving time and energy for other things you may enjoy more than researching companies, etc.

Over the long terms:
- Costs compound badly
- Active investors on average fail to produce good results because of the costs of trading and CGT (Capital Gain Taxes) expenses
- By buying an index you reduce the emotional stress and you'd be less likely of panic or get greedy

For some reason I still think the book is missing something in terms of preparing the reader for the frequent and normal up and down of the markets.

Love this book, actually investing in the stock market is a great way to build lasting wealth, but it can be a minefield, and you need to know what you're doing. Otherwise, you're going to lose your capital to the vagaries of the market that is if the siren call of market scams doesn't get you first.
But it doesn't have to be that way. If you're interested in trading and want to understand and explore proven financial advice and put your money to work, but don't know where or how to begin. Or you're tired of the truckloads of technical jargon, and the sheer complexity of the market scare you senseless, then keep reading. In this guide, you're going to learn how to put your money to work for you with field-tested, highly perfected, and fine-tuned trading strategies. Them will help you to make bank and create lasting wealth using two of the most powerful trade. Whether you're excited by the idea of trading, but fear you don't have what it takes to succeed. Or you're a dab hand in the stock market and are simply looking for ways to grow your stock investment. The information contained in this guide will hone your trading instincts and will help you make the right calls. An excellent overall guide for all of us. Grateful! Great one!

I purchased this book thinking that there might be some content of interest to a person when considering investing in stocks for their dividend yield. Unfortunately, what I found was some extremely basic investment advice that was simplified to the point of being misleading (e.g., attributing dividend returns to the growth in value of a portfolio that was almost certainly driven quite substantially by capital appreciation). There was almost no discussion at all of portfolio construction beyond picking either an ETF or a handful of the "dividend aristocrats". The author explains some basic investing concepts like dollar cost averaging, but there is nothing in this book which makes it worth the price tag. The Investopedia page on "Introduction to Dividends" actually contains more information about how dividends work than this book. If your investing knowledge is at the level where this book is actually helpful for you, you would be better served with a general book on investing rather than one targeted specifically toward dividend stocks.

On top of all this, the author uses large font with lots of white space on the page in order to inflate the page count (as well as a large section full of ads for other books). It took me about 30-45 minutes to read through the whole thing, and I'm usually a slow reader.

This book is only 29 pages. The content is good, but it is only a brief snapshot of Warren Buffet's life and investment strategy. More importantly, it seems that this book is self-published since no publishing company is listed (not even the "CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform" company is listed as it is in the Amazon description), no references are cited (ya, references are sort of important (can you sense my understated sarcasm here)), and the entire book needs editing. It appears that the author just threw this book together in an afternoon and as highlights from other Warren Buffett books. There are multiple grammatical errors. For example, some sentences are incomplete, missing some important connecting articles, some pronouns and antecedents are switched or missing, and there is a center-justified paragraph on page 25 that stands out like a sore thumb against all the other left-justified paragraphs. I even got a good laugh out of how the disclaimer on the last page is a medical disclaimer, which must have been copied and pasted from some unknown source without much thought.

I chose to read this book based on the title, cover, description, and my own love of Key West. It was a quick, light read, but didn't feel like anything new or special to me. I was surprised at the simple plot with almost no conflict whatsoever. The main character had no trouble finding employment, cushy housing, friends, and a love interest with little to no effort and absolutely no struggle. I didn't care too much about Livie because I didn't know enough about her, particularly her past relationships or mistakes. The story was told through the eyes of Livie's best friend Blair, and that didn't work as well as it could have. Blair was hardly part of Livie's story at all, so she just came across as a pretty silly storyteller. I did like the end, but it didn't seem to match the rest of the story. It was more introspective than better than the shallow meanderings earlier on. I did not like how a minor character was described. She was overweight and her appearance was ridiculed by the narrator. "Pillsbury dough arms" seemed nasty and unnecessary. Livie's mother was also an annoying character, but her father and brother we're tolerable. I didn't love this book, but it was OK. I certainly loved the setting. It kind of read like the author's fantasy life goals, particularly at the end. Fine for a beach read. Thank you to Net Galley and the published for allowing me to read an ARC.

The Principles of Success: Lessons from Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett by Oliver Wright, Richard Roth, et al.. Rated 5 out of 5 stars, with 1 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Warren Buffett category.

This consists of quotes from Warren Buffett’s letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. They’re quite amusing, and make a good quick read. But you can do better.

Read Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders rather than pre-digested lightweight stuff like this.

If you want to invest like him, there are at least three ways you can do it:

1. Buy shares in Berkshire Hathaway.
2. Buy the same shares that he does, when he does. Men Faber describes how to do this in Invest With The House: Hacking The Top Hedge Funds.
3. Use his techniques to find companies in which to buy shares. Matt Kratter explains how to do this in Invest Like Warren Buffett: Powerful Strategies for Building Wealth.

If you have stumbled across this book while looking for something which explains how to invest your money wisely, you might want to look at my favourite book on investing: Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School.

I have always had a strong passion for reading biographies. I think what attracts me to them is the lessons that the reader can take away and apply to their own lives. With this interest in mind, combined with my strong interest in Berkshire Hathaway, I eagerly awaited the publication of The Warren Buffett CEO. I was anxious to see what lessons and insights I could learn and apply to my own path through life.
I found the book to be an extremely enjoyable read. It provides a richness of detail and previously unavailable insight on the mangers that make the subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway such a remarkable group of exceptional performers. It was also refreshing to see Mr. Buffett receive credit for being the outstanding manager he truly is. Almost all of the attention he receives focuses on his investment prowess and disregards completely his abilities as a manager. As this book will show you he is simply a tremendous manager who is able to inspire his mangers to continue working to produce results that will make him, and Berkshire shareholders, proud. He is able to achieve this even when the majority of the managers certainly no longer have a financial need to continue working.
Mr. Miles has grown as a writer and has given us all an excellent tool that provides many insights into what it takes to be a good manager, the dedication and drive it takes to succeed, and what to focus on when trying to create, and grow, an enduring customer centered business.

This is by far the best book on investing that I've ever read. And I've read several dozen of them, plus another few dozen trading books. It's very clear, very concise, and makes perfect sense. I re-read it every year. Hallam gives us a complete investment strategy, which works across all phases of the market. You'll need to do a little bit of research at the beginning, but you won't need to make any complicated decisions. It should take a few hours each year to implement.

The summary is:

* Spend only what you need to, in order to have a reasonable life style. Save as much as possible to invest for the future. Eliminate debt before you make new investments.

* Start investing as early as possible, to enjoy the benefit of compound interest.

* Invest in low-cost index funds.

* Split your investments into two segments: bond indexes and stock indexes. Weight the bonds according to your age, so if your are 38 years old, hold 35-40% of your entire portfolio in bonds.

* Over time the bond component will grow/fall at a different rate than the stock component. So when you invest new money, buy more of the under-performing component. For example, if stocks have done really well so your portfolio is now weighted 30% bonds and 70% stocks, buy bonds with the new money. Then every year, rebalance the portfolio, selling enough of the higher performing component to buy more of the worse performing component. Note that most people would do the opposite, and buy more of high performing component.

This strategy forces you to sell high but buy low. That's exactly what you'd do when buying and selling any other product.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. If I could, I'd give it ten stars. Buy it, read it, digest it, follow its advice. Ignore almost everything else.

No, I'm not related to the author, I'm totally independent of him.

One Thousand Ways to Make 1000 by Minaker, F.C. (2011) Paperback by Warren Buffett. Rated 5 out of 5 stars, with 2 ratings. Read more and check out similar items in the Warren Buffett category.

I just finished reading this book cover to cover, and will probably read it again in a few weeks time. I found it to be quite simply the best and most complete resource on value investing I have ever seen, read or heard of in my life. Graham and Dodd not only teach us how to invest and why, but convey with beautiful eloquence their reasoning and frame of mind. They teach us that investing is as much about constitution and temperament as it is about logic and numbers, and are able to impart that wisdom and experience to us in those few hundred pages (ok, many hundred pages).

For those of you reading this who are new to investing, Benjamin Graham and David Dodd quite literally wrote the book on value investing, and this is it. I would point out though that it was written for the purpose of being a source of information and tools rather than a way of introducing and inspiring its readers to the philosophy of value investing. So if you are new to investing or to the concepts of value investing, I would really recommend reading Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" first; it's a comparatively easy to read introduction to the concepts covered in greater detail in this book.

While I have not read the original 1930's edition, I have heard that this version is more complete in that it irons out some of the kinks in the investment strategy that Graham developed following his near bankruptcy during the great depression.

A word on the relevance of this book in today's market: Much of the book centers about examples from preferred stocks of utilities and railroads, investment vehicles which are far less prevalent today than they were in the early 20th century. However, these are just examples, and the pitfalls and opportunities which arise in the stock market are as prevalent today as they were in the days this book was written. I am of the opinion that those who criticize this work on the basis that it is outdated, really did not understand what Graham was trying to do; to convey a new way of thinking about stocks, and to understand them based on the company that they represent. It doesn't matter whether you are purchasing a pre-depression era railroad preferred or the hybrid floating rate bond of a modern technology company, the examples exist to illustrate how to look past all that and to understand what the purchase of that security really means. If, after reading this book, you find yourself unable to transfer the examples to the modern world, then quite frankly you've read it wrong.

If, however, you are concerned about the relevance and are after more specific guidance on modern applications (as well as trimming of the "less" relevant sections), take a look at the 6th edition of this book, which contains detailed chapter summaries and introductions by modern money people.

Finally, the reason for the 4 stars: The digitization of this book is not fantastic, and given the price this is not really acceptable. I found several errors which I have reported (and will hopefully have been fixed by now), but my real gripe is with the tables and figures, which are simply scanned. This is usually fine, but many of the footnotes are so small as to be illegible, and the overall feel is somewhat like a sketchbook; with cutouts glued to the pages where the tables were in the real book. I had hoped that Amazon would instead have digitally transcribed the tables and inserted them, or at least given them a transparent background, rather than the sepia tone that can't be changed on the tables. If this is ever corrected I'll change my review to 5 stars and remove this paragraph.

I can't possibly express my gratitude for what those two did when they decided to put Graham's experience onto paper in the form of this book, and I think I will forever be grateful for their efforts. This book has taught me invaluable lessons not only in investing but also in prudence and the value of sobriety in the face of euphoria and gloom, lessons which apply to many other facets of life.

Pabrai has written a great book for value investors. Like Pabrai, I have followed Buffett/Munger for decades and attempted to emulate their investing style and philosophy. In this book, he goes through several examples of his investment strategy which includes finding stocks where if you are wrong you don't lose much and if you are right you win big, very big. He tends to make large and infrequent bets. Similar to Buffett he waits for the big fat pitches to come along and then swings for the fences with sizable bets on them.

If you have studied Buffett and Munger you will find a lot of his investment philosophy familiar of course but it is a good refresher and Pabrai communicates these principles well. I found the book an easy read and enjoyable. Other investment books sometimes I have to force myself to push through them but Dhandho was a breeze.

One big thing I learned from Pabrai that I either never picked up or internalized properly was the idea of making big bets. Over the years if I had a high conviction stock I would make an equal size bet on it. I might hold 30 to 50 stocks that make up the bulk of my portfolio. If one got too big I'd pare it down if my conviction on it was lower in order to keep diversification and lower overall risk. In hindsight, this was likely a mistake on my part.

Pabrai introduced me to the "Kelly Formula" which is a betting formula that gives you an idea of how big a bet you might want to make on a particular investment. Using this formula I found I probably should have made bets that were 10% or at times 20-30% of my total portfolio. In reality, most of my original stock investments never exceeded just 2% to 4% of the total portfolio value. As a result, I watched some higher conviction positions become multi-baggers over the years that would have had a higher impact on the portfolio had I simply bought more.

Of course, everyone says "I should have bought more of "xyz" but I look back and know there were some safe stocks I bought to be diversified with low risk and others that I had a higher conviction on that also came without undue risk. I simply did not apply the formula and bet as big as I should have.

I highly recommend this book to any investor and especially value investors. I wish it was written a decade ago or more and that I had found it. I'm sure with the knowledge I have gained from Dhando Investor I would have mostly likely beaten the markets by an even larger percentage.

This book was not at all what I was expecting, but contains some good advice that many would benefit from. For some background, my wife and I are relatively young and have career jobs. I bought this book for information on making the most of any extra income, learning more about investing strategies, options for generating passive income, and improving my personal finances. I did learn a few things, but not on these topics (maybe a bit on the last point). The book primarily focuses on interesting finds and anecdotes from the authors' years of research on millionaires in America.

The book is divided into eight chapters:
1. Meet the Millionaire Next Door
2. Frugal Frugal Frugal
3. Time, Energy, and Money
4. You Aren't What You Drive
5. Economic Outpatient Care
6. Affirmative Action, Family Style
7. Find Your Niche
8. Jobs: Millionaire vs. Heirs

The author essentially splits everyone into two categories: Underaccumulators of Wealth (UAWs) and Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (PAWs). UAWs have a low net worth relative to income, and the opposite for PAWs and uses these terms throughout the book.

His primary argument is that PAWs get to be wealthy by living well below their means - these are people who do not look like millionaires, they live in modest neighborhoods, drive domestic sedans, wear a Timex, and usually have a blue-collar job that does not come with an expensive lifestyle associated and as a result can accumulate a sizeable nest egg. On the other hand, UAWs are typically well-educated professionals with high paying and high profile jobs (doctors, attorneys), but due to societal pressures associated with their social standing are forced to squander all their money living in luxury neighborhoods, driving German cars, and sending their kids to private schools. Their expensive lifestyle means that they spend most of their income and as a result have a low net worth, despite outward appearances.

I agree that this is good advice for just about anyone: live below your means and prioritize financial security over social standing. Growing up in a single-income family living in a modest middle class neighborhood, I'm quite used to the live-below-your-means philosophy and I think it gave me at least some sense of good financial discipline. If my parents are any indication, it works great.

Where the authors really lost my interest is that the rest of the book is chock full of anecdotes and some rather uninformative statistics to drive a few other points home. While some of these are good points and undoubtedly useful, they always seem to come with caveats or don't draw any real conclusion, which I found frustrating. Most of the points could have been made succinctly in about 1/10 the amount of page space the authors dedicate to them. These include:

- Most millionaires in America are self employed business owners, because they run their personal finances like their business finances. However, going into business for yourself is very risky so we don't really recommend that as a viable way to get rich.

- Very few millionaires have ever spent much money on a nice suit, pair of shoes, or luxury watch. They usually live in modest neighborhoods or rural areas where the cost of living and social pressures of consumerism are lower.

- First generation millionaires (often immigrants) tend to be succeeded by children with financial struggles, since the parent's desire to "give them a better life" pushes them into careers where they become UAWs, and their upbringing in our consumerist culture impedes their ability to live frugally. But even if it turns them into UAWs, encourage them to go to college and aspire to a while-collar professional job.

- Parents giving money to their children develops and reinforces poor financial habits. This money is almost always immediately spent, and these children generally have no savings since they are looking to their parents as their safety net and counting on an inheritance. Doing things like buying children a house in an upscale neighborhood or sending grandkids to a private school actually makes the children worse off, since they have to spend more to maintain the associated lifestyle.

- The authors spend an inordinate amount of time and space comparing different careers, which I found next to useless since I'm very happy with my chosen career (Engineer) and have no intention of changing. They continually deride pretty much every professional job you can think of, and simultaneously praises how great working for yourself or owning a business is while going on about how difficult and risky it is to actually own a successful business. The author does not recommend changing careers, but again, this is more of a discussion of what their research has shown than any sort of "how to" advice.

- Car buyers fall into four categories: whether you buy new or used, and whether you buy from the same place or shop around. The authors devote an entire chapter to this while only coming to the following conclusions: no method of buying a car is the clear winner, but if you own a business you may benefit from your connections with the owners of car dealerships; and most millionaires drive unassuming domestic (and to a lesser extent, Japanese) cars purchased new or lightly used.

A final note - curiously, I found no mention of anything real-estate related, which to me is highly unusual in any sort of book about building wealth. The only investment advice found here is in the final chapter and could be summarized as "invest in what you know." That is, if you work in a certain sector, your knowledge of the industry will help you make good investment decisions. Not sure how I feel about this one. For example: not working in technology doesn't mean blue-chip tech stocks are a bad investment. Take it with a grain of salt.

One last complaint: most of the financial figures are presented in mid-1990s dollars. I found it frustrating to have to mentally convert to today's dollars to get a relative sense. The authors took the time to update the preface in 2010, it would have been nice to see a revision to the figures quoted throughout the book. (For reference, one 1996 dollar is worth about 1.6 dollars in 2017).

In summary, I was surprised about the amount of praise heaped on this book. I would hardly categorize it as a self-help book, it's more a retrospective on the authors' research and a collection of anecdotes and interesting conclusions about the countless Americans leading unglamorous lives while accumulating appreciable amounts of wealth. It's a quick read and I made it through the whole book on a 5-hour flight with time to spare. I would only recommend this book as an interesting overview of some good financial habits, or as an eye-opener for those with luxurious financial tendencies who struggle to save money despite their income level. However, for those who have already developed some discipline and are looking for detailed strategies and advice on personal finance and building wealth via investments and generating passive income, look elsewhere.

From the outset I had the feeling that this book would be something special. In a typical Buffett book the author sits back in his armchair, reads some historical Berkshire annual reports and then attempts to rehash and paraphrase the words of Buffett. Miles has taken the effort to physically travel across the country to interview some of Berkshire's finest managers. If Buffett is the brains of the organisation, then his managers are its heartbeat. They keep its lifeblood, namely cash, pumping through the organisation on a daily basis. This book provides some penetrating insight into one of the most important yet arcane aspects of company valuation, which is evaluating quality of management. Some of my notes on the CEOs follow:

Tony Nicely, head of operations at GEICO - The most striking thing about Tony is that he treats GEICO as his company even with no direct share ownership. The company forms an integral part of his life and when that type of manager is combined with a high quality business the results are very potent

Lou Simpson, investment manager at GEICO - Lou has an edge because he is able to obtain differential insight into a company which has not yet been factored into the share price. He maintains this edge by thinking and reading voraciously. He is in the office by 6am and stays until 7:30pm - that is a lot of reading and thinking, almost certainly more than his competitors. He evaluates companies both qualitatively and quantitatively, he is interested in both the business and the people

Ajit Jain - Ajit is obviously a very intelligent man since he is charged with pricing super catastrophe insurance. Yet he says "I can take a deal that I've spent 10 days trying to analyse and give it to him, and in 5 minutes he's two steps ahead of me...Warren is a lot smarter, he has a lot more experience and he can make judgement calls. There is no dimension I can think of where I am anywhere close to where he is"

Rose Blumkin - Once again the incredible work ethic shines through and it is emphasised that Buffett invests in people first and businesses second

Frank Rooney, CEO of H. H. Brown - When acquiring the business, Buffett said "Don't any of that stuff from Goldman Sachs, just send me the audited numbers for the last couple of years". Rooney says "Warren hadn't seen a factory and he hadn't met any of the people. Why the hell did he buy a shoe company". Warren subsequently said "Much of my enthusiasm for this purchase came from Frank's willingness to continue as CEO. Like most of our managers, he has no financial need to work but does so because he loves the game and likes to excel"

Melvyn Wolff, Star Furniture - This interview illustrates Buffett's meticulous eye for detail. In examining three years of financial statements he observed and queried a slightly different wording of a footnote between one year and the next. This shows his incredible memory and recall. The interview also provides some insight into his valuation methods. Regarding the furniture business, the author mentions that Buffett purchases the company valued "at its current annual sales"

Susan Jacques, Borsheim's - Buffett needed only 10 minutes and five questions to determine his purchase price "What are sales? What are gross profits? What are expenses? What's in inventory? Are you willing to stay on?"

My primary criticism is that the book seems unbalanced. Not one negative thing was said and although working for Berkshire must be very good I can't imagine it is perfect. I think a review of mistakes can be just as insightful as review of the wonderful aspects and I'm disappointed that this was not present. Overall a recommended read.

5 puntos de conclusion, como lograr unas finanzas sanas y seguimiento a ganar por medio de productos financieros. Gracias se aprendio mucho.

I enjoyed reading this book based on 41 factoid from Warren Buffett investment life and philosophy. Some of it was surprising, like the fact that he does not believe in diversification, and much of it as educational, particularly his explanation of the mistakes his made along his legendary career. This book is not great literature, but I found it educational and entertaining.

Ali Julia review

By reading this book, i understand what it take for Warren to be successful in investing, and be in life.
Both his investing & life principle teach me a great deal.

Firs of all: this book will not make you rich. Nor will explain you a secret which will help you become rich.
After all, it was not written by Warren Buffet himself - that should give you additional warning sign.
This book explains some principles Buffet used in his way to the top, it explains differences between him and many others and many other things, but it doesn't bring any magic formula. Some things you will find in are useful, of course and in general it is worth reading, but in general nothing spectacular. It explains Buffet's general philosophy and strategy, but without some key things: how to find "gold share" and how will you know when you find it. Also, my opinion is that it's applicable to USA only, if you are in Europe - take care. Shares available in some smaller countries are not even close to ones you can buy in USA. But can still offer high revenues if you NOT follow some rules in this book.
Anyway, I would recommend this book to anyone dealing with shares because it gives you some wider perspective and ideas you will not hear from your own broker, but still - use your own head.

*A full executive summary of this book is available at newbooksinbrief dot com.

The main argument: In the developed world, the vast majority of us enjoy a standard of living unmatched in the history of humankind—and going hungry is the last thing on our minds. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that poverty and hunger have been eradicated in the developed world entirely (in the United States, for example, 1 in 6 are considered food insecure—including 16 million children). Still, the greatest problems with poverty and hunger continue to exist in the developing world. Indeed, despite substantial improvements over the past 30 years, poverty remains a significant issue, and nearly a billion of the world’s 7 billion people still face chronic hunger (while about twice that number are malnourished in some way)—and millions starve to death every year.

It is not that many well intentioned people and organizations have not spent a great deal of time and money trying to solve the world’s poverty and hunger issues. Indeed, over the past half century the amount of resources that have been poured into these problems is staggering. So, just why do the problems of poverty and hunger stubbornly persist?

Well, at least part of it has to do with the fact that there are several significant obstacles standing in the way—everything from armed conflict, to corrupt governments, to particular cultural practices etc. The humanitarian Howard G. Buffet has been involved in fighting poverty and hunger for upwards of 30 years, and knows these obstacles all too well. However, Buffet insists that there is yet another reason why all of the well-intentioned efforts have fallen short of reaching their ultimate goal. And that is that many of the approaches have proven to be inadequate (if not downright counter-productive).

The fact is that most of the aid flowing to the poorest parts of the world has been (and continues to be) in the form of projects that are meant to help people in the short-term. For example, NGOs commonly enter an area, drop off bags of seed and fertilizer, and then turn around and leave. This approach may help the area for a season or two, but in the end the seed and fertilizer do run out, and the community is right back to square one. Thus the approach acts more as a band-aid, than a self-sustaining solution that addresses the root causes of poverty and hunger.

Thankfully, in Buffet’s 30 years of work as a philanthropist he has learned that there is indeed a better approach, and one that stands a much better chance of rooting out poverty and hunger for good. The more effective approach is much less about aid as development—less about helping people as enabling people to help themselves.

The development approach involves linking subsistence farmers up with the larger economy, and establishing a self-sustaining ecosystem that will allow this connection to be maintained into the future. It involves things like helping to establish agricultural schools and private seed companies; working with farmers to improve farming techniques and yields (and not in a way that assumes that what has worked well in one place—or one’s own backyard—will work everywhere); establishing grain storage systems; physically connecting farmers to markets; and working with governments to establish and maintain the infrastructure (especially roads) needed to make the system work smoothly.

The development approach may be more involved and take longer to get off the ground, but it pays off in the end, as when it is done well, it only has to be done once (Buffet speaks often about NGOs needing to take an approach that ultimately puts themselves out of business).

And helping impoverished farmers join the larger economy is not just a matter of helping them help themselves. The fact is that the world’s population is continuing to grow, while we are running out of good farmland to farm. The UN estimates that in order to feed the world’s projected 9 billion people by 2050, farmers everywhere will need to increase the planet’s food production by 70%. Part of the solution to this problem must involve helping the world’s subsistence farmers to produce a surplus to help everyone.

But the solution doesn’t end there. Farmers everywhere, including in the developed world, will need to increase their yields to meet the growing demand. However—and this is important—farmers will need to increase their yields in a sustainable way. That is, they will need to do so in a way that does not degrade the soil, or threaten the world’s fresh water or woodlands—as too often happens now.

Thankfully, Buffet’s experience as a farmer (which he has been practising even longer than philanthropy) has shown him that here too there is a solution. And a big part of this solution is a very straightforward approach known as no-till farming. No-till farming is an approach that eschews tilling the soil in favor of planting nitrogen-fixing cover crops. The approach not only increases water retention, saves soil, and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, it also helps increase yields (and thus it’s a win-win solution). Now it’s just a matter of convincing other farmers of this—which is a big part of Buffet’s project.

This is a fantastic book. Don't let the fact that Buffet is the son of one of the wealthiest men on the planet dissuade you from taking him seriously. The author may have had a head start in life, but he stands on his own two legs, and he has used his privileged position to help him gain perspective (rather than let it make him arrogant and entitled). Anyone interested in the hunger problem (and the best way to approach it) would be well advised to read this book. A full executive summary of the book is available at newbooksinbrief dot com; a podcast discussion of the book will be available soon.

Poor Charlie's Almanac has been on my reading list for the last couple of years. It took me a six-month sabbatical (and then some) to get through it. This is a testament to the information, lessons, references and stories from Charlie Munger. Fundamentally, this book is an encyclopedia of information on what it takes to be successful and to achieve greatness in what it is you want to do in life; all from a very successful and extremely well read (and connected) 90-ish year old billionaire!

Let's be clear, this is not a book that you can quickly skim through, but rather a book you spend quality time with every day; for a good couple of months. This way you're giving yourself the best change of retaining all of Charlie's tidbits of wisdom. One of the great things about this book is the plethora of quotes from successful entrepreneurs, historians, philosophers alike whose ideas and writings have survived the test of time.

Suffice to say, this is one of those books I'm going to re-read, reference and quote for the rest of my life. Well worth a purchase!

Three Key Takeaways from the book:
1. Charlie knows no wise people who didn't read all the time. It is more than just reading though, one has to grab ideas and do sensible things. Most people do not identify ideas, and if they do, they do not know what to do with them
2. Diversification in investing is something that Charlie doesn't believe in. His recommendation is to choose three good company stocks and invest accordingly. Interesting approach given most financial advisors typically recommend the opposite
3. Self-pity is always counter-productive, It's the wrong way to think. And when you avoid it you get a great advantage over everybody else or almost everybody else, because self-pity is a standard response. And you can train yourself out of it

Entiendo que es un libro muy importante escrito por grandes referentes del mundo de la inversión, pero en mi caso, creo que tengo un nivel medio y aun así no entendía los términos que utiliza. Creo que está traducido del inglés literal y no a nuestras expresiones, por lo que a mi se me ha hecho casi imposible de entender, he de decir que los comentarios si que clarifican un poco el contenido, pero no lo suficiente.

Vick is a stock analyst himself with experience as an editor of a market newsletter. His investing experience and his clear writing help in learning about the important factors in Warren Buffett's investment style. The main problem is that there have been some changes in Buffett's style since the book was written. It does remain an excellent source of insight into his way of investing and thinking about investing.

Buffet showed an interest in earning money at a very early age. He did a great deal of experimenting with different investment techniques. Mathematics was of particular interest and very useful in analyzing businesses and possible investments. The magic of compound interest was particularly intriguing and he realized almost immediately that every dollar he didn't spend would compound in the future to a much greater amount. With this in mind he developed an aversion to spending money that could otherwise be invested. He was captivated with the book “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham, and was impressed enough that he decided to study under Graham at the Columbia business school. He and Graham argued different points in class. Buffet wound up working for Graham for a short time, then started his own investment firm.

One technique Buffet uses is to compare all possible investments with long-term bonds especially treasuries. The long term treasuries are considered the safest investments (not accounting for inflation) so if you can get 3% on long term treasury bonds any other investment must have a better return since they will be riskier. He then uses the long term bond rate say 3% as the discount rate. The discount rate is supposed to take into account the volatility of the investments being studied as a proxy for risk. So if an investment is considered much riskier than treasury bonds you select a higher discount rate say 15%. Buffet makes this easier for himself by primarily looking at companies that have long-term growth rates that are rising and vary little. The problem for ordinary investors is that much business and investment expertise goes into selecting the appropriate discount rate to account for growth, volatility and risk. This has proved to be virtually impossible to do consistently even for professional investors.

Buffet is generally looking for a company that is selling well below its’ calculated intrinsic value. Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life. The intrinsic value is very difficult to calculate precisely since it depends on many factors, but in a very rough way over long periods of time changes in the book value of the co Gladmpany gives you a general idea of changes in its intrinsic value. There can, however, be large discrepancies between the two, and even larger differences with the stock market price. He believes in having a margin of safety by purchasing a company well below its’ intrinsic value when possible. This is most likely during significant market downturns.

There is some correlation between the long term growth of the book value and the return on equity, ROE, of the company and the company stock price. There is also a lot of fluctuation due to stock buybacks, the normal business cycle, and companies playing games with their numbers to look good. Generally increasing earnings, and return on equity, are good for the future stock price. But there are many factors such as buying back the company stock, borrowing more, etc., that could affect the future price of a stock. Buffet is usually looking for big stable companies to buy such as Coca-Cola, Procter& Gamble, Wells Fargo that have a long history of stable, increasing earnings and paying increasing dividends.

The next step is not to lose. This is easier said than done since the price of stocks obviously fluctuate quite a bit. He studies many companies carefully to find those that will do well in the long-term. To minimize the chances of a loss he waits to get the best price he can with the intention of holding forever. Over the years he has shown a preference for purchasing whole companies with the owners staying on to actually run the business itself. His chief function seems to be to allocate the income streams from many companies he is associated with into new and profitable businesses and the expansions of existing businesses. Since you coninue to discuss purchasing stocks, this might be be better at the end or before the next to the last paragraph. )

Several times in his long investing career he announced that he couldn't find any worthwhile stocks to invest as in during 1969, 1987, 2001, and 2008. Other times he announced he was like a kid in the candy store and there were many stocks he wanted to buy in 1974, 1982, 2002 and 2009. He uses many criteria to choose stocks to buy. Apparently when most of his criteria are showing that stocks are not a good buy he considers it may be a good time to think about selling. In other words he does the opposite of the average investor. He sells when everything is looking great and profits abound, he buys when it looks like the end of the financial world. This is quite easy to say, but quite difficult to do in practice.

Many other techniques are used to maximize profit such as arbitrage, especially in takeovers, options -both calls and puts, and the futures market. Buffett uses these techniques to improve his chances of getting exceptional long-term results. All these require some special knowledge and good timing. The stability and financial power of Berkshire have been used to get very good deals on convertible securities that ordinary investors don't have a chance of getting.

Craigslist with this piece of s***Buffett has several suggestions for better investment results. One is to consider a stock as an actual business and research as if you were going to be the owner for the next decade or longer. Another is to realize the business value and the stock price frequently show a large difference. It is best to purchase the stock when its price is depressed, which is most likely when entire market is in free fall. Look at stock fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy. Try to buy a stock when there's a great deal of pessimism in its area and the price is depressed. Sell a stock when there's a great deal of euphoria and the price seems like it will climb forever. Finally always look for a margin of safety, some advantage that will make price fluctuations less severe.

Although the definitive popular book on Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett remains to be written, this excellent work is certainly the state-of-the-art in this area. For those who do not have the time or inclination to read the writings and speeches of these important investment thinkers, you get the key kernels of wisdom in action-oriented doses here. This is the first book I have read that gives the stock investor who wants to outperform the market averages a sense of what is involved in order to have a chance. The examples of how to apply these methods to companies like General Electric, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and internet retailers are very helpful. I thought this book was much more valuable in every way than Buffettology.
Both Graham and Buffett see buying stock as being the same as buying a whole company. The analytical methods involved are similar to those used by companies thinking about making an acquisition, except there is no need to consider what the joint operating benefits of the companies will be. The strength of this approach to stock investing is that if stock values for a company fall too low another company or group of cash-flow-oriented investors will acquire the whole company. In the long run, stocks should not fall too far below their intrinsic value (a Graham concept) as cash flow generators.
The book is organized into three sections. The first looks at whether the stock market is efficient or not. If it is, you cannot beat it. If it is not, you can beat it by investing where it is not efficient. The evidence here summarized estimates that the stock market is at least 20 percent inefficient and becoming more so. I am aware of a number of studies showing other kinds of inefficiency that Professor Cunningham does not cite. My own personal view is that the stock market is not very efficient at all, but is relatively predictable within a band of probability.
A particular strength of this section is in creating a summary of many of the arguments for stock market efficiency and inefficiency. Trust me. Unless you really love reading this kind of research (which I happen to), you will be better off reading the summaries here rather than the originals.
The second section discusses how to outperform the stock market. The best part of this section is an extremely well done parable about a man who wants to sell his apple tree. He is approached by many different types of potential purchasers, and they offer wildly varying prices. You get the interior logic of how each price is arrived at in a way that allows you to see the fundamental weaknesses and strengths of each approach. Nicely done!
The heart of this section emphasizes the familiar Graham and/or Buffett (their philosophies do not coincide, but rather partially overlap) concepts of sticking to what you know well, having a margin of safety, and doing your homework. I particularly liked the detailed description of how to determine where you have a knowledge edge that allows you to potentially have an advantage as a stock investor. The cautions against overestimating what you know are very well done.
The third section looks at the role of company management and boards of directors. It debunks a lot of the popular thinking about the importance of good governance. As Warren Buffett often emphasizes in his annual letters to shareholders, you should invest only with people you "like, trust, and admire." A CEO with a weakness (particularly a lack of integrity) can quickly tank your investment before you can do anything about it. Certainly, I have been sorry a number of times when I have not followed that rule. I certainly subscribe to it now. Every management will make mistakes. Only highly focused and capable ones will notice that they have and work on rectifying the errors rather than trying to explain why there really is no problem.
If you read this book carefully, it will convince you that outperforming the stock market is a pretty hard thing to do unless you have a great deal of knowledge about public companies and unusually good access to company managements. I think describing what needs to be done is the most eloquent argument that I have seen for why the average investor should be in indexed mutual funds for the stock portion of her or his portfolio. I suggest you already read John Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds. I was pleased to see that this book raises an important question of valuation for when to commit to new purchases of indexed funds. People differ on this subject; but while the S&P 500's multiple is as high as sit is now and cash flow growth is so weak, many people may benefit from holding off or buying other indexes instead. Consider the small cap value indexes instead now, for instance.
I suspect that you can learn a lot by comparing your past stock investing with the patterns described here. Are you a great investor? Great investors have "independence of thought, . . . [and] utter and profound common sense . . . ." The challenge here is that "common sense is . . . it is so uncommon." On the other hand, "those who buy stocks outside their circle of competence are gamblers, speculators, or fools." Please wear the shoe that fits you.
The most accurate prediction of future stock market conditions is that they will fluctuate. Currently, the average stock varies by 50 percent in price each year. What method of stock investing will allow you to either ignore or best take advantage of that volatility? Be sure to consider your emotions at least as much as your intellect and available time in making this determination.
Get a great return on your time and on your investments!

Over 300 helpful quotes, concepts and tidbits of information that the author has accumulated throughout his 33 + years running and growing a business.

It seems like the last few books I reviewed mentioned the importance of understanding "opportunity costs". On page 9, "Every activity you undertake exacts the price of not being able to pursue alternative activities... Thus the cost of putting out fires where fires exist and putting fingers in dikes where leaks exist is extremely high in the sense of decreased progress or missed opportunities." Peter Drucker calls that "feeding the problems and starving the opportunities"

Barnett also touches on the importance of being able to execute.

On page 115 there is great advise about the importance of raising prices and the importance of doing so on a gradual scale, whether needed or not because when it is needed you may not be able to play catch up.

A few cool quotes:

"Surrounding yourself with dwarfs does not make you a giant" - Yiddish Folk Saying

Meaning always hire up.

Success

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of the intelligent people and the affection of children:

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better;

To help in leaving a better social condition;

To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is success.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

"In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you.

- Warren Buffett

Chapter 63 is on "asking - not telling" It contains some great advise and a few notable quotes:

"I had six honest men-they tought me all I know: Their names were Where and What and When-and Why and How and Who.

- Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

By Kevin Kingston author of A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate: A True Story About the Ups and Downs From Wall Street to Real Estate Leading up to Phenomenal Returns

My Blog: bloglines.com/blog/KevinKingston

There are basically two teams in this match of ideas, with several participants trying to referee. On one side are the economists by trade, who are very skeptical about non-market criteria in economics. On the other side are the non-economists who believe the art and science of economics needs to be broadened, but are unclear on how this can be accomplished. Notably, I found the most refreshing approach of the many experts participating in the blog offered by perhaps its youngest contributor – the student Kyle Chauvin – who argued how we need to expand the reach of traditional, or profit, capitalism, not only around the world but to the overlooked corners of the developed world as well.

Unfortunately, the two sides never really converge in this debate and I suppose that may be why the conversation disappeared from public discourse (only 7 reviews?). Both sides accept some common premises that need to be challenged in order to break out of the box we find ourselves in on these issues.

These premises derive from the neoclassical school of economic theory that laid the foundation for general equilibrium theory in macroeconomics. Specifically, actors within the economy are classified according to a loose application of factor analysis, so we have workers, entrepreneurs and small business owners, corporate firms and managers, investors, savers, lenders, borrowers, consumers, and political actors. Then we lump these categories into producers, savers, and investors on one side versus consumers, workers, and borrowers on the other. The consensus seems to settle on the idea that some people produce and so policy should empower this production. Then successful producers can be taxed by political actors, and/or encouraged by philanthropy, to redistribute the wealth to non-producers for reasons that range from compassion to demand stimulus.

Capital accumulation and equity ownership in capitalist enterprise is an essential form of participation in the modern global market economy. Concomitant with ownership is the question of control in governance and risk management as the flip side of profit. But instead of focusing on how wealth is created and distributed through these market structures and institutions, we insist on dividing capital from labor and then try to redistribute the outcomes by political calculus, or by corporate largess. This is industrial age capitalism and such a mode of production will never accomplish what we hope to through creative capitalism. (I do agree with Clive Cook that we need a better term—maybe Inclusive Capitalism or the Singularity, to borrow from Ray Kurzweil.)

The problems that corporate social responsibility (CSR) seeks to address are rooted in the skewed distribution of productive resources across society, widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots. But taxing the haves to give to the have-nots is a self-defeating form of compassion. We should try to adhere to the Chinese proverb about teaching a hungry man to fish so that he eats for a lifetime. This can be put most plainly by asking the following question: If corporations work solely to enrich shareholders, then why aren’t we all shareholders? To widen the economic net even more, why aren’t all enterprise stakeholders shareholders?

Equity participation may also be the most viable way to promote “recognition” as a complement to profit maximization, as stakeholders have a broader range of interests, of which immediate profits is only one. This idea also focuses our attention on the real problem of free societies: agency failures and governance. Market economies depend on a multiplicity of agent-principal relationships in economic enterprises and political institutions. The abuse of these relationships is the mark of cronyism that dominates public attitudes toward “undemocratic” capitalism these days. This is not an easy problem to solve, but suffice to say equity ownership, control, and risk management must be as open, transparent, and competitive as possible. This is the only way to confirm that these relationships are accepted as just.

The only sustainable solution to world poverty and the skewed distribution of resources is the creation of a worldwide, self-sufficient, productive middle class. This is as necessary for democratic politics as it is for economics. For the middle class to grow, it needs access to resources, mostly financial capital and technology these days.

We can point to the history of land homesteading that built the American Midwest, and just recently, the idea floated by Michigan’s governor to promote homesteading in Detroit for foreigners. Society’s resources need to be spread far and wide in order to reap the benefits of innovation and adaptation, while maximizing the utilization of these resources. The financial imperative of capital is to maximize return, but the socioeconomic objective seeks to do so by combining capital with labor. This flies a bit in the face of the efficiency argument that some people are better at managing risk and creating wealth, so specialization of function should favor the risk managers on Wall Street. The problem is that we never know where to find the successful entrepreneurs and job creating small businesses of the future, only those of the past. And Wall St. only considers those who manage to squeeze through the narrow access door.

Without angel capital provided by family relations who merely saved and accumulated their personal wealth, many enterprises would never see the light of day. At the early stages, venture capital money is too costly or unavailable. This story is repeated across the economy, yet today’s concentration of capital in venture firms, hedge funds, private equity, buyout firms, major bank holding companies, etc. narrows capital access to those who already have it. The proliferation of ideas must be forced through this bottleneck, to what end? Better that individuals, families, small group networks, etc. are empowered by policy to accumulate their own capital to put at risk in entrepreneurial ventures. After all, sometimes the idea is not so sexy and may be nothing more than a new restaurant idea or a better mousetrap. In a world where the future is unknown, we can’t lock ourselves into narrow investment models built on the past. Likewise, we should not underestimate the ancillary growth Microsoft seeded by enriching its own shareholders.

The key point, which cannot be overemphasized, is that broad capital accumulation achieves double the impact of other policy options. First, it helps finance ideas, innovation and entrepreneurial risk-taking that will increase labor utilization, spreading the risks and benefits of economic growth. Second, accumulated financial assets, or savings, help mitigate economic risks of unemployment, health, and retirement through self-insurance. This reduces political demands on the state's safety-nets and the tax and redistributive policies on productive effort that hampers economic growth. Essentially, policies that promote broad-based capital accumulation are a win-win for all citizens of a democratic capitalist society.

With the exception of one laptop and 2 non-smart cell phones, in my personal and professional life since 2004 I've had nothing but Apple products - computers (both desktop and laptop), iPads, iPods, and my crown jewel: my iPhone. None has ever disappointed me. I say this not to put forth a review of the Apple products but to explain that I am part of Steve Jobs's choir: I value, respect and rely on the products that he created. I'm sold, so to speak. And so it seemed only logical that I would eventually read this book to gain insight both in the genesis and evolution of Apple and in the person of Steve Jobs. The book did not disappoint in either.

What I found out about the early years and the development of the personal computer was fascinating. I do remember a lot of the news articles from those years - I was living in San Francisco at the time and a good friend of mine worked for Apple - but I would not consider myself previously knowledgeable about Apple in any comprehensive way. I learned so much of the nuts and bolts of Apple Computer, Inc., from this book. The chapters about the creation of the iPod, iPhone and iPad were very interesting to someone who has used these products for years and years and feels she has some proficiency using what they offer me.

But the insight I gained from the book on Steve Jobs the man left me very sad. While I consider him to have been a true genius with an almost other-worldly imagination, I can't imagine that I would have liked him very much or respected him outside of his professional arena. As the founder and developer of Apple Computer, he was spectacular. He had an intense imagination, vision, and belief in things that had yet to be discovered. He was fortunate enough to find those people who had the same precise work ethic that he did. To find those people and to hone the abilities of the ones who stayed, he had no reservations about crushing their substandard efforts or their feelings. The ones who lasted were the ones who believed in his vision and their Jobs-given opportunity to indulge and demonstrate their own creativity. The ones who lasted were the best and brightest the tech and artistic world had to offer. The ones who lasted were the ones who took his ideas and made them into our reality. I am profoundly grateful to them and to him for the advances they made in technology and artistry. And I guess the one cannot exist without the other. Without his exact personality would the tech world have been turned on its ear and eventually controlled by Apple? I don't know. Actually I doubt it.

In terms of his family, it seemed as if his attention to them was given only when it was not required or demanded elsewhere. His children were discussed very little; the same is true about Laurene Powell, his wife. But it is clear that in his wife he found the one person who was his equal in intelligence and commitment. Their marriage is portrayed as strong but him as absent.

The sections on his cancer and eventual death were moving but not enough to make me feel for him as a person. I am sorry he died but my sorrow has to do with the loss of him professionally and what he might have accomplished and achieved had he lived but not with the loss of him as a man. And yet I can recognize his genius and I'm glad I read the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this carefully researched book based on the stories about successful women and the ethical businesses and corporations where they worked. The inside information such as how to position yourself to be in the right place at the right time (it's not all luck of course) is useful and entertaining. It was interesting to be educated on how and where to shop. For instance if I ever need to shop for fine jewelry, I now know to ask about the "store price." There is a wealth of information about running businesses including home sales throughout the book.

It was a real pleasure to read about Berkshire Hathaway and other corporations that function with high standards of integrity. We hear so much of greedy executives bleeding companies dry - leaving employees and investors in the ruins. None of that goes on here. I knew that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates were involved in many humanitarian organizations but did not realize how positively it reflected on their businesses and corporate cultures. There is much to admire about the women executives who are so vitally important to them.

Each woman and the circumstances leading to her success is different. There is no single plan of success, but the tips are sincere and valuable. The author, Karen Linder, writes with authority gained from personal experience. She ran her own company which she started in Omaha and has now organized a second one. In the spirit of integrity exemplified by the women and men in this book I want to disclose that I have known Karen for many years through our mutual association in laboratory science.

It was a good quick read, that was inspiring to show how down to earth these to gentleman are, and how they built their empire.

If i had the opportunity to give back this book, i wouldn't, cause it's too boring to share

El libro está en inglés, así que tus hijos deberán tener cierto nivel para seguirlo. Hay algunas cosas que específicas de USA (aparte de que siempre se menciona al dólar y ni a otra moneda), pero en general todo es válido.

Lo suyo es leerlo junto con los críos o, en su defecto, que vayan ellos leyendo un capítulo y que luego pregunten lo que no hayan entendido, haciéndoles a su vez algunas preguntas de control.

Mientras que no haya nada parecido en castellano, es una buena opción.

I purchased two self help, “credit repair” books and this particular publication was by far the better of the two. The material is easy to follow, step-by-step tutorial on how to do the necessary work to repair bad credit. It provides detailed templates on the letters you MUST write to individual agencies.

I am not finished yet merely half-way into the book but I wanted to review this book; I just could not wait ;-) to tell you all about it. I am taking my time and digesting it all because the meat needs to be chewed, enjoyed and digested thoroughly. I am enjoying each aspect of this book and can't say enough...............I am loving this book.

I have purchased several books pertaining to Buffett and have followed him and his work for a few years. I was interested in him not only because of his investments but his character is to be rewarded; money isn't everything. I have not finished the other books that I have purchased about him but want to be able to absorb this one first before moving forward into the others. Nor have I gotten a chance to delve into the website yet, I can't wait.

This book helps you to see and delve into the ways into which Buffett processes his investments but also shows how his upbringing, mentors and experiences has helped him in his investment endeavors and the investment choices that he makes as seen in Chapter 2: The Education of Warren Buffet. Here it provides an understanding of the industry and having hands on experience does help but in not letting money be your guide is best. Once you understand then you can make better and educated decisions.

Everyone may not be able to have the same types of successes as Buffett has had but to understand the method behind the man says a lot. Robert G. Hagstrom does a good job in breaking down the book. As in Chapter 4: Common Stock Purchases - Nine Case Studies in the tenets that he uses are valuable from Simple and Understandable and Price Point to Candor/Rationality. Stay tuned for a follow-up from me once I finish the book and review the website.

Up unto this point this book is Highly Recommended.

Do not be frightened off by the title. This is not yet another “How to become as rich as Buffett by following his investment secrets.”
This is a mature and thought-provoking book that highlights some important practices of the best investor on planet earth. These are practices that can be easily followed by any investor and that will at best improve your returns, and at least highlight the difference between being a speculator and an investor.
The book opens with a description of Buffett’s early life, education and career, as well as his capitalist tendencies that started at age six.
The impression many have of Buffett as a great stock-picker overlooks the fact that his wealth is not based on stock-picking, and that he doesn’t spend his days watching the boards to see movements from which he can take a quick advantage. His is the “get rich slow” scheme, which requires work – Buffett works seven days a week.
Early in his career Buffett learned a powerful, clarifying insight from his mentor, Benjamin Graham, that of the erratic Mr Market. The stock market is like a manic-depressive partner who will offer to buy your 50% share of the business for more than it is worth when he is manic, and sell his 50% for less than it is worth when he is depressed. Buffett’s method is to ignore Mr Market and focus only on the business itself.
No business gets percentage points better in a day or percentage points worse in a day. Those are the ravings of the manic-depressive, Mr Market.
A well run business with its solid business model and high quality management, will go through rough periods, but those will pass and not affect the value the business will achieve – over time. “Over time” is five years, anything less is not investing, it is speculating.
Buffett works hard at finding out how good a company really is, and flees from companies that mask their problems or mislead their shareholders. Recently he dumped his holdings in Tesco, the British supermarket chain, when it was revealed the management had lied about their financial state. Buffett lost $440m, but would not leave his money with a company that cannot be trusted to tell the truth to their shareholders.
Buffett reads company reports insatiably, and places great value on those that have a Chairman’s report written by the Chairman himself, and not the PR department. However, Buffett also listens to “the Scuttlebut” – the bucket on the old sailing ship that the sailors would gather around to drink water and gossip, much like the modern coffee machine. What are the people in the company saying about the company and the management? What are the competitors and customers saying about the company?
Buffett has a share portfolio of $117bn, (larger than the National Budget of South Africa), but just four listed companies make up 60% of that value. They are Wells Fargo, Coca Cola, American Express and IBM. The rest of his portfolio are unlisted companies, eight of which are big enough to qualify for the Fortune 500.
Many talk of “diversification” of a portfolio, and their rationale is that where some companies fail to perform, the others will compensate. Buffett’s view is to “put all your eggs in one basket, but watch that basket very carefully, and know what it is that you are buying.”
In this short and very readable book, the trusted Alec Hogg has pulled together some of the most important lessons that can be gleaned from Warren Buffett. Hogg has followed Buffett for years and has had personal exposure to the great man. Complemented by Hogg’s knowledge of the South African context he has produced a ‘must read’ - whether you invest directly in the market, or through advisors.
Readability Light +---- Serious
Insights High -+--- Low
Practical High -+--- Low

*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works.

I recently finished reading "How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The R.C. Willey Story." I was so impressed with the book that I am purchasing copies for each of my children and for many of my friends. It was both informative and inspirational. As one who has been involved in higher level management for many years -- I am currently serving as a college president -- the book comes to mind almost daily and reminds me of the importance of integrity and the value of customers (in our case, students). In fact, I am using the portions regarding customer relations as the basis for some training that we are doing in that area. I am blessed to know Mr. Child and Mr. Benedict and this book is the real thing -- it was a quick but inspiring read.

I first read this book in 2003 and re-read it again in December 2010.

O'Loughlin's "The Real Warren Buffett: Managing capital, leading people" focuses on both Buffett's skill as an investor and his role as a business leader. Most people are perhaps more familiar with the first yet curiously we are likely to learn more from the second. Why, well because Buffett was "hard-wired" with the kind of logical mathematical brain that favoured him in investing whereas he had to learn to become a good leader.

This book is a great help in addressing how Buffett became a sucessful business leader. It talks about the "explosion" in Buffett's cognition after 20 years being a successful stock picker which came in part from his exposure to Charlie Munger, his subsequent business partner. Just as Benjamin Graham influenced his early approach to investing, Charlie Munger was an equally important influence on his later approach to investing and business leadership.

O'Loughlin highlights how Buffett first began to address the issue of the "institutional imperative" in organisations and then realised it applied to him as well. What is the institutional imperative? It refers to the tendency of organisations to resist any change to its current direction. Buffett liked to quote Churchill who said "you shape your houses and then your houses shape you" and Lord Keynes who said "The difficulty lies not in the new ideas but in escaping from the old ones". In Buffett's case this meant escaping the old ways of valuing businesses that he learned from Ben Graham and learning new ways he was exploring himself urged on by Munger.

In Buffett's case his imperative was to stay focused on stock picking or "renting stocks" as O'Loughlin refers to it, whereas Munger was encouraging him to look at value creation and at those businesses that had enduring franchises (the great businesses as Munger called them). Such businesses had a future whereas for most of Buffett's short-term stock picks, their best days were behind them.

Once he started to acquire these "great franchises" he was faced with a new problem, 'How to motivate their managers to stay running the business long after most had any financial need to do so'? Buffett's answer to this question is the main reason he is as successful as a business leader. How did do it?

His challenge was to get the new managers to continue to think like owners. He did this by guaranteeing their autonomy, but trusting them and by giving them a reputation to live up to. He encouraged them to "run their companies as if these are the sole asset of their families and will remain so for the next century" (Buffett, Letter to Shareholders, 1999).

Ralph Schey noted, "The greatest strength he has - giving you a lot of freedom to run the business the way you want. And that way, you can't pass the responsibility back to him" (ex CEO Scott Fetzer). Bill Child noted, "He has a way of motivating you. He trusts you so much that you just want to perform" (R.C. Willey Home Furnishings). On retiring after 20 years working with Berkshire, Ben Rosner commented to Buffett (paraphrase)"I know why it worked" he said "you forgot you bought the business and I forgot I sold it". In 2000 Buffett said, "in our last 36 years Berkshire has never had a manager of a significant subsidiary voluntarily leave to join another business".

In re-reading the book now, I am struck by the emphasis that O'Loughlin places on "development" which is of course central to my own research on Buffett. I am also reminded that just because a book is eight years old, and there have been many other books on Buffett since (most of which I have read), doesn't reduce this book's many useful insights.

This book is quite mediocre, consisting of a bunch of second-rate excerpts from the work of famous investors. It's like an art museum that, instead of the BEST works by famous painters, has the WORST work by each famous painter. I can't imagine why editor Krass did this, except maybe to save on the expenses of securing permission to reprint.

For example, in the case of Benjamin Graham, instead of choosing something sublime from, say "The Intelligent Investor", Krass chose an obscure piece from "The Magazine of Wall Street" in 1920, which talks about hedging techniques that Graham himself said were useless, later in his career.

The biographical sketches before each piece are full of errors, for example misspelling "Niagara" as "Niagra" and stating that J.S. Bach died in 1760 when even the most amateur student of music history knows that he died in 1750.

The underlying cause of all this nonsense becomes clear when you go to the dust jacket and see that Krass has written a whole series of these books, such as "Book of Financial Wisdom," "Book of Leadership Wisdom," etc. Clearly Krass is a hack who knows nothing about investing, and is just assembling quotations at random to make a few bucks. Save your money and buy a good book on investing. This is not it.

This book let me see that retirement investing does not have to be difficult or expensive. Mr. Buffett`s strategy relies on pretty simple concept of compounding of a well diversified portfolio. I can make a low cost mutual fund group to my needs. This book provides what I needed--retirement advice without the sugar coating!

Awesome buy!!

A lot of the free financial websites only supply people with 5 Years of History for Book Value, Net Income, Share Count and Dividend. The Morningstar website can supply 10 years.

Since the technique uses as much history as possible to adjust the book from an initial accounting book value, people using this technique will end up with very different clean surplus ROE ration if they have 10 years of history versus 5 years.

The author claims that the clean surplus ROE produces better results for stock picking than the Accounting ROE. The tables in the book showed the clean surplus ROE for his stock examples, but it would have been nice to show the traditional accounting ROE in the table as well as the Dupont ROE ratio which uses a different formula which is the profit margin multiplied by asset turnover multiplied by the financial leverage..

The example portfolios were 8 stocks versus the DOW. I would have liked to have seen the results of four 8 stock portfolios selected thus:
- 8 Best Clean Surplus ROE (using 10 years of data)
- 8 Best Clean Surplus ROE (using 5 years of data)
- 8 Best Accounting ROE (using 5 years of data)
- 8 Best Dupont ROE (using 5 years of Data).

The Author said the 8 stocks with the Clean Surplus ROE outperformed the DOW, certainly, but would a selection of the top accounting ROE or Dupont ROE resulted in a similar portfolio of stocks ? Stocks with a high clean surplus ROE also tend to have a high accounting ROE so someone can easily end up with the same stocks using the accounting ROE. It's hard to know without a comparison of the 4 different ROE

One other aspect which I wonder about is buybacks. The author adjusts the oldest book value with retained earnings but buybacks is an outflow of money from the enterprise. So following buybacks, remaining share holders have a bigger piece of a poorer company. Is there an adjustment which must be made with buybacks or alternative with share dilution via the emission of new stocks ? There was very little said about buybacks.

I would imagine this is a great book for certain kinds of people. The problem is that the information and the tips in this book are geared towards the lowest common denominator. If you have no or next to no previous financial education then this is probably an excellent book for you to start with. If you already understand the basics of budgeting, and what a budget is, then it might not be worth your while to read through this entire book.
There are a few small things I got out of the book, here and there. But ultimately I could tell that I wasn’t the target demographic for this book. I also didn’t like the last chapter where the author kind of broached the idea of “money scripts” but then didn’t mention what a money script was or how it impacts one’s ability to budget and save money. It either shouldn’t have been included or should have been written differently.
If the idea of budgeting is foreign to you, if you’ve never tried it before, if you’ve never taken any accounting or finance classes, this book will probably help you elevate your game a thousand. But if you’ve had even an elementary financial background and are having problems budgeting for reasons other than you go to happy hour every day, then you’ll probably be better off with another book.
This book spends a lot of time essentially saying “be honest and transparent with yourself about where you spend your money and why you do it. Then plan to do better.” It’s a worthwhile message for everyone, but this book isn’t just for anyone.

I am deeply inspired by Warren Buffet and really wished to learn more about him, his life and the lessons I could acquire and adopt in my life. This book lists nine habits that Warren follows in his daily life and how we cash incorporate those habits into our lives and be as successful as he is.

A good concept and highly motivating.

I did enjoy most of the stories and the investment strategies profiled in this book. However, I did not think investors who relied on quant's and what I would classify as day trading belonged in a book with Warren Buffett's name in the title. Mr. Buffett would most likely be very amused when some of the investors didn't know the name of the company they invested in because they used mathematical formulas or charts as a basis for buying part of a company.

Some of the investment returns seemed unrealistic because the amount of money invested in a virtual portfolio was in the millions of dollars. However, the author did say he did not look at the one investors brokerage statement to verify actual rates of return leading one to believe he was able to verify real the rates of return for the other investors profiled.

If you are looking for a book that teaches you how to invest, this book will not get the job done. On the back cover, one of the endorsements says "... their unique styles may not be replicable..." and I have to agree. Some of the participants would not fully disclose exactly how they made their investment decisions.

The take away from this book is anyone can be a successful investor if they are willing to first educate themselves and then put in the time necessary for research to generate above average returns. Overall this is a good book and it may give you some ideas how to improve your own investment returns as some investors reveal screening criteria and the websites they use to perform their due diligence. If nothing else, this book will inspire you to work at improving your own investment returns. And since Mr. Buffett's own investment strategy is not replicable, isn't that why we read books with his name in the title?

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
Think Like a Titan is a self-improvement book that uses the stories, anecdotes and quotes from the lives of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett,
There are 30 attributes split 10 among each of the titans. Given the short length of the book that means we don’t spend much time with any given attribute. If there is any criticism in the writing it would only be that I wish we got to go deeper with each of the titans but this serves as an excellent introduction to each and will hopefully encourage you to learn more about these remarkable men.
The narrator was clear, energetic and easy to listen to.

In theory, the author should explain a simple and logic process for building a small business that Mr. Buffett would love.

In practice, the author explains a simple,logic and effective process which can be mainly applied for buying a small business that Mr. Buffett would love.

One thing is building, another thing is buying: it's quite different!!

Anyway, this isn't what I haven't liked because the main flaw of this book in my opinion is that there isn't any case history.

I've payed $19 for a book of about 190 pages on a particular subject, hence I would have liked to read at least just one case history!!

Never mind!!

Suggestion for the author: include at least a meaningful case history ( a must ) and if he feels like, he might go deeper because there also other kinds of competitive advantages:

[...]

Best regards.

Fab

Before commenting on what's in the book, I would like to take a moment to point out what is not. When the history of the great investors is written about the years 2000 to 2020, it will be filled with names different than those studied in this book. We don't know who those people are yet, but they will probably do something different from what these great investors of the past have done. Caveat investor! A backwards look at investment styles often does not translate into superior rewards in the future. That's one reason why 80 percent of professionals cannot beat the market averages. See John Bogle's Common Sense About Mutual Funds for more details on that perspective.
If you already know who Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, T. Rowe Price, and John Templeton are and what their investment styles are or were, you don't need this book. If these people or the details of their work are unfamiliar to you, this book will serve as a good introduction to those perspectives. It will also take you less time to study than reading the more definitive works on these people. If any of the approaches excite you, I suggest you go in for more depth elsewhere.
What is unique and valuable about this book is an attempt to blend the styles into one you can use to pick stocks and bonds. I thought that it was done reasonably well. Each investor is laid out in the same format, and then the results are summarized in the last part of the book. Basically, you are shown how to gather and evaluate the most appropriate information, and then to make a decision based on your evaluation.
There is also some good material to help you understand your risk profile, so you can focus on the relevant types of investments for you. There are also some questions to fill out like those that financial planners often use (that should be no surprise, given that the author is a certified financial planner).
My only concern is that this book could encourage you to try to do too much of your own investment picking and monitoring. Most people don't want to be that involved. And most people don't have the time or interest to do the job well, even if they want to. Although it is exciting to think about getting great investment returns, the odds are actually against you. If great results interest you, even after those caveats, I suggest you read ChangeWave Investing and think about putting 10 percent or less of your money into that approach. It could be the outstanding result that will become equally respected with the past greats in the future.
In any case, enjoy using this well done book to overcome your misconception, disbelief and procrastination stalls about personal investing. Your brief apprenticeship with the masters outlined in this book will give you a better understanding of what successful investment processes have looked like. Then see if they fit you.
Live long and prosper!

Another Home Run, This time in the Bear Market. Matt just keeps giving us the Best that he has when it comes to beating the odds in the Stock market. I just hope he never stops providing all this great information. When I first began trading stocks, I was clueless. With Matt's books, I now feel more comfortable and positive on what I am doing when it comes to investing in stocks, Futures or Options. Wherever I am honing my skills in long term or short investments, my portfolio continues to rise. Thanks Matt!

Lorenzo

Enjoyable read for any person interested in learning about how to become successful in business and life. Focus is on 10 billionaires who have made their fortune in a variety of different endeavors, but all share similar qualities and principles of success. In particular I liked reading about Elon Musk, as he is an inspiration to me as he started Tesla and Solar City, and is a real visionary and leader. Overall very interesting read and well written. Highly recommend.

Miles has an unusual tact here, because he covers move than you would first realize. One he unites the ideas of what it takes to invest like Buffet and then also run a company like Buffet i.e. Berkshire Hathaway. It is that two fold attack that is surprising; most break them up or don't realize the importance of having such a complete viewpoint that feeds into itself.

Tips abound: limit yourself to companies you understand or really want to know about, in depth i.e. become your own specialist. t's best to have a very strong #2 on-board, to discuss and bounce off ideas. Select the best and concentrate your time, labour and money in that. Being frugal isn't a vice. Remain debtless and try to live as simply as possible so you don't lost time and energy taking care of worthless assets. Ignore dividends -- because they channel assets away from the enterprise but also are taxable :-)

There are lots of other nuggets, like things & people that inspire Buffet peppered throughout ( John Maynard Keynes), health personal tips i.e. deny Keep yourself in good health, discipline yourself, keep yourself humble. Overall this really does make Buffet look like the Sage of Omaha but to be honest it's a lot of good sense in a very palatable package that helps you not just with your busines, your investments but with your overall handling of life. It's enjoyable to listen to and probably worth taking notes on, you could learn alot from Miles and Buffet and particularly the Berkshire annual report./TKL

The info in the book can be summarised in one sentence- live frugally. That’s is all. It is probably worth to get the sample first before buying. There is a lot of useless statistic that extend the book and provide no useful info,for example - a few pages written about the background of millionaires (German, English,,Italian etc.) with conclusion that the background does not matter at all. Then there is info about what credit cards millionaires use - not sure what was the point here. And the bottom line is they use Visa and MasterCard. Wow!!! What a surprise and yes, they do use loyalty cards. Why? Because they live frugally!
Moreover, it jumps from various point with no logic it will start describing info in a line of ‘3 out of 192 millionaires wear a watch worth more than 5k; out of these watches one was given as a gift; 7 of 192 millionaires have never spent lots than 1k on a watch;175 out of 192 wear a watch worth less than 500 etc’, this makes it not only a super boring read but leads to a point completely unrelated like their background, which then will lead tot he fact they write a budget and stick to it, to how much they spend on alcohol to someone life story to god knows what else- I did not even finish it but can already Imagine a few pegs written about 80% of 168 out 192 millionaires’ clothing is black or grey so when it is dirty so you cannot see that and 75% do laundry only once a month which allows them to save on the cost of laundry (detergent, water and electricity) ;P

If you are very early on in your wealth creation journey you may find this info eye-opening. If you believe that millionaires drive Ferrari and wear designer clothes you will quickly change your opinion but if you already know that frugality is crucial or in fact you want to drive Ferrari then this book is pointless.

The only info that I found of interest was that they live on 7% of their wealth.

An excellent, nuts and bolts discussion of Warren Buffett's investment thesis and strategy. After about a 75 page background on Buffett, Berkshire and the Buffett history and mystique, Hagstrom dives into the investment philosophy. He manages to distill the Buffett approach into ten tenets:

*Is the business understandable?
*Does the business have a consistient operating history?
*Does the business have favorable long term prospects?
*Is management rational in capital allocation?
*Is management candid with shareholders?
*Does management resist the institutional imperative?
*You need to focus on return on equity, not earnings per share.
*Calculate "owner earnings" to get a true reflection of value.
*Look for companies with high profit margins.
*For every dollar retained, make sure the market value increases by at least one dollar.
*Understand what is the value of the business?
*Can the business be purchased at a significant discount to value?

He then analyzes many Berkshire investments looking at these ten tenets. Once you have read the book, you will have a better understanding through Hagstrom's thorough examples of how to apply these tenets to an investment. A good, practical and not too wonkish book.

This is an enhanced reprint of the original, with additional study questions/ discussion and review added at the end of every chapter. I bought the original about 18 years ago and it changed my families destiny for the better. I am glad the reprint came out as it prompted me to reread it and deepen my understanding.
Some people complain that this book does not give a step by step process for change. I would counter that one size shoe does not fit all feet. There are many individual paths to wealth, and Kiyosaki sets the guiding stars to navigate by, but you have to walk your own individual road.

Some key concepts of this book are: 1) Assets put money in your pocket even when you are on vacation. Liabilities take money out of your pocket, therefore your house is a liability [unless you rent out rooms and the garage as one person I know did while rebuilding his asset base].
2) Wealthy people buy assets first, and then let their assets buy their luxuries from the surplus cash flow.
3) Wealthy people continuously increase their assets by reinvesting their surplus cash flow in more assets.
4) There are 3 primary asset classes: Real Estate, Businesses, and Paper assets (stocks bonds notes, etc)
5) Cash Flow is more important than Net Worth. Net Worth is similar to potential energy, to use it you have to spend it, then it is gone. Cash Flow is like power from a hydroelectric dam, constantly replenished.
The rich don't work for money, they work for assets.
The tax laws are fair from the standpoint that the laws that the rich spent billions of dollars to have modified and interpreted apply to everyone who learns how to use them.

A great foundation book for beginning to improve your financial intelligence so that you don't work 4 or more month's of every year for the Tax man, more months for the banks that hold your mortgage and credit cards, and whatever is left making the company you work for wealthy. Good luck on your journey to being Rich, poor, or middle class.

Per fortuna che mi hanno rimborsato. Davvero pessimo: scritto come fosse una tesina delle medie, forse una 20ina di pagine (le ho anche lette). Tutto materiale che può essere trovato online o su qualsiasi libro su Warren Buffet.

This is a derivative work with nothing new, and no original thoughts. Most of the book is just rehashing what you could have learned for free by reading Buffett's annual letters to shareholders. In fact large portions of the book are simply quoted directly from the annual letters. Those parts that aren't from the annual letters will already be familiar to any Buffett follower that has read any other book on Buffett. If you've never read anything about Buffett and don't want to wade through the annual letters, than this is the book for you. However, if you looking for any actual meaningful analysis of Buffett's deals, that is completely absent from this book.

It was as expected

Don't get me wrong but this is one of the worst books I have ever read.

Let me explain why...
This book is about growth investing and growth investing only. The reason I thought the book is horrible is because the author go against some of the already proven techiniches and consensus already stabilished not only in Wall Street but for great legends like Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, John J. Murphy, Bulkowski, Nison and others.

For instance, he desregards the use of P/E or Discounted Cash Flow as a good metrics, giving exemples about the high P/E ratios found on Microsoft and other Tech Growth stocks and how the investor would have missed those stocks.
But he does not tell the story about the dot com bubble and how this same over valued P/E stocks went from a fortune to nothing, capitalizing on earning growth that even did not existed, more like a future promisse.

He gives other example about Bank of America with low P/E in 2008. For God Sakes a global financial crises and meltdown of stock market should not be a parameter for nothing and pro investor or not, who earned money in that year?

Other point the author dismiss based on his research is about Technical Analysis and some Patterns, saying almost all patterns have a low rate of success. The only pattern that he considers good is cup and handle because he was the first person to spot it and write about it, I guess...

On the final chapters the author have some chapters with titles like When to sell or how to time markets and stuff like that, but he does not give clear clues and techniques and pictures of how to do it and how to do it, he just talk in a shallow way.

He dislikes the idea of buying good and stabilished companys like Coca-Cola and Gillete just because the are too big to generate good profits or because he judges their management team old fellow with no interest to innovate or step out of the box. Also deslikes the idea of buy and hold good companies like Warren Buffett does.

In resume, is almost like he is saying "Go Big or Go Home!" and instigating the new investor to take risks with this unproven enterprises...

Like I said, this is a good for those interested in buy and look for growth stocks and maybe in this matter it can be a useful book, but to dismiss all the common sense and already proven techniques ranging from value investing and technical analysis for me would be madness

Das Buch hat mir sehr gefallen. Besonders die Aussage über die CEO Vergötterung: Investiere nur in Unternehmen, die ein Dummkopf führen könnte.

Auch die Passage über Ajit Jain fand ich sehr interssant. Bisher war mir nur Charlie Munger bekannt, die rechte Hand von Buffett. Aber wie Buffett sagte: Schwimmen Sie zu Ajit, wenn Sie nur einen retten können.
Mich nimmt Wunder, ob Ajit wirklich der Nachfolger von Buffett werden kann.
Somit kann ich das Buch sehr empfehlen.

In his latest two-volume work, "Of Permanent Value The Story of Warren Buffett", Andrew Kilpatrick has proven his genius as a biographical historian equals the genius of Warren Buffett as an Entrepeneur.

During all of my years of reading everything available about and following the many activities of Warren Buffett, nowhere have I encountered as complete a compilation of pictures, personal memorabilia, and historic data as those condtained in Mr. Kilpatrick's work. The ingenuity and inventiveness of the book's presentation and the obvious effort required to amass and so careingly organize such an abundance of material leaves little doubt as to the author's personal admiration for his subject.

Overall, the format of the book is well organized, interesting, and very readable. However, one of my greatest pleasures emerged gradually as I discovered the value of the book's content from an historical perfspective. Because the author has so successfully endeavored to arrange all of his material chronologically, the work subtly conveys to the reader some insight into the variety of historical events our coutry hosted, commencing with Warren's very early years as a child in the 1930's and on up to the present day.

This Anthology of the young boy from Omaha, Nebraska who became the world's greatest financial entrepeneur, and wealthiest man, compiled by Andrew Kilpatrick, is destined to remain one of the most thorough, well-organized, and historic portrayals of Warren Buffett's personal life, methods, and business ventures ever assembled into a single source.

Whether for their informative value or merely pure pleasure, everyone interested in its subject should own this work by Andrew Kilpatrick. Nowhere else are the life, times, acquaintances, and entrepenurial genius of Warren Buffett so skillfully bundled into a single work.

These two very attractively bound volumes leave the reader thoroughly convinced that although Warren Buffett, in the realm of finance, has achieved the status of a Babe Ruth, it is Andy Kilpatrick, the author, who has just hit the home run!

When I walked into Barnes & Noble two weeks ago, I wasn't actually looking to purchase a book. Usually, I go in, browse for 30 minutes, and get out. But when I walked around to the Physics and Science section, the first thing I saw was Elon Musk's face.

Inevitably, I picked it up and began reading.

2 pages in, I decided I was in this for the long haul and sat on the floor, right there in the middle of the store. 15 pages in, my friends finally found me and forced me to leave. But I couldn't part with this. I needed this book. Those first 15 pages captured me like so few books do (in fact, only one book in the past year has totally stolen my attention like this).

So I bought Elon Musk feeling on top of the world and excited to keep reading.

I travel a lot between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, PA, so, since I'm in the middle of taking classes in Pittsburgh, I swore to only read this book on the bus, because I knew once I picked it up again, I wouldn't put down.

I was right.

The next day, I got on the bus, got to reading, and tuned out the world. Three hours later, I was nearly halfway through -- and WOW. Vance's writing style flowed right through my mind. No clunky sentences, no jarring phrases. It's such an easy book to read, despite the complex nature of the contents.

Elon Musk, if you don't know, is a biography. Yes, a biography. You'd expect the case-study of someone's life to be boring and uneventful, dragging until the very end.

This wasn't the case at all.

Vance opens the book at an interview with Elon Musk himself. The first line, a quote from Musk, "Do you think I'm insane?", perfectly captures the whole context of the biography. Because as you experience the story, as you see the challenges Musk went through to reach the pinnacle he's at today, the question nags at you. Musk isn't soft-spoken, or easy on his employees, or a man who kicks his legs up on his desk and snoozes while his companies mill around him. Vance shows how Musk is both the CEO and an employee of his companies, simultaneously the teacher and student. He gets in the work, asks all the right questions, gives all the right orders. His vision is THE vision, and if you get in the way, Musk has been known to fire you on the spot.

Musk breaks every convention, every tradition, every standard. Vance takes you deep into the details, from Musk's childhood and lineage in South Africa, all the way to Canada and the United States, where the bulk of the story unfolds.

When Musk looks at big businesses, he sees unmovable behemoths that refuse to change their methodologies. American innovation became a thing of the past. Technology and industry was growing - but nowhere near as fast as it should. So we follow Musk's journey from his small start-ups, Zip2 and X.com, and move into his larger, more permanent ventures, namely SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.

I myself am a huge fan of Elon Musk. Still, until the past year or two, I only thought of him as "that guy who made SpaceX" and "that guy who runs Tesla." Until reading this book, I never knew the struggle -- no, the hell he went through to make and keep these companies. You think, oh, he just has a lot of money.

Yeah, now he does. But did you know SpaceX and Tesla were hours away from going bankrupt? Did you know that the Falcon 1 rocket kept failing, and one more failed launch literally meant the end of SpaceX? Did you know SpaceX tested these rockets on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and would fix problems they encountered in a matter of days, as compared to months by standard companies?

This book is the first time Musk has explicitly let anyone interview him for a biography. Aside from a few questionable quotes that have been publicly denounced by Musk after the publication of this book, we're still given a tremendous amount of insight into his head and how he runs the companies. Vance interviewed more than 300 people and spent over two years compiling this account. And I have to give credit to how up-to-date the information is. There are several events Vance mentions that occurred into 2015, such as the first landing attempt of Falcon 9 on the sea barge, which took place in January, and he refers to the second attempt as being in a couple weeks, which means that Vance included this information on a very tight deadline, probably mid-March (the second landing attempt happened on April 14, 2015).

I want to congratulate you, Mr. Vance. Well done. Very well done. I'm going to reread this book in a few weeks (probably after the scheduled June 19th third Falcon 9 landing attempt, this time on solid ground, as opposed to a barge). Anyone who wants a ridiculously thorough insight into Elon Musk's life and companies should read this book. It had me from Page 1 all the way to Page 363, and even the appendices that come after.

This is an incredibly inspiring book, a important look into a game-changing business strategy, and a valuable lesson to the world. As Musk says, "If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it."

This is a book about the art of closing a large deal. The author has experience in this area. Before the age of 40 he "had headed four corporations, each of which [he] took from annual revenues of less than $15 million to more than $100 million." This book is an instruction manual for the business person that wants to grow their business exponentially.

This is for sales people, for executives, for CEO's, for entrepreneurs, and for innovators; everyone that wants to make their mark in business. That was the best takeaway for me - there are so many pieces of this process that I'll be able to use individually, outside of a specific deal, and I will be a more effective businessman as a result.

There are 18 Chapters or Lessons, that the author learned from tracking Warren Buffet, and I split those up into the steps toward winning a large deal. Those steps were:
1) Choosing your target - don't swing at everything
2) Craft a compelling solution that address the major concerns of Time, Money & Risk.
3) Speak the language of a dealmaker - don't speak like a manager to a CEO.
4) How to get an executive at a target prospect to call you back.
5) Building a team to engage your prospect effectively by predicting and addressing their concerns.
6) How to deal with the problems and people that will stand in your way.
7) How to close the sale AND secure the deal.

I was so impressed by the content of this book that I bought it for all my top customers. The first step in growing your territory is partnering with your clients to grow their business, and I'm confident this will make them stronger.

I identified one of the key takeaways from each of the chapters of the book. In order to fully understand them, it is best to read them in the context of the chapter, but these valuable nuggets are part of the treasure you'll find:

Gold Nugget 1: "Make deals with the kind of people you would like to be in business with."
Gold Nugget 2: "Developing a solution and a message that have an impact on the entire company, not just one department."
Gold Nugget 3: "Never go after the company, Always go after the deal."
Gold Nugget 4: In order for large companies to trust you, they want "safety and credibility."
Gold Nugget 5: "Big people with big problems don't buy little solutions."
Gold Nugget 6: "The big dealmakers want to hear about money, time and risk. These words are part of the language of big deals."
Gold Nugget 7: "What prospects do make deals on is what they can sell [internally] and defend later."
Gold Nugget 8: "Prospects for your next big deal expect you to have a relevant and valuable understanding of their problems so that you can discuss their general context immediately."
Gold Nugget 9: "You eliminate the fear by including on your team the people from your company who are best equipped to give in-depth answers to all the questions that are being raised."
Gold Nugget 10: "If you show any incompetence in your normal day-to-day dealings with your prospects, they will note trust you to be competent in carrying out your solution."
Gold Nugget 11: "Identify your known vulnerabilities."
Gold Nugget 12: "You must think in terms of what your prospects will value, rather than in terms of your product or service."
Gold Nugget 13: "Enrich your deal-making practice sessions further by adding one or more broken plays to the meetings you're practicing."
Gold Nugget 14: "You want to ask questions, but just like a good attorney, you have to know the answers before you ask the questions."
Gold Nugget 15: "As you receive these questions, you want to be helpful, thorough, and responsive. You also want to use this as a reconnaissance period for your own gathering of information."
Gold Nugget 16: "Your ability to make your prospect feel comfortable and unafraid about buying from you is what lands you the deal."
Gold Nugget 17: "The thoroughness of your solution in terms of how they get from here to there will determine whether they are willing to actually take the necessary steps to buy your proposal and move forward now."
Gold Nugget 18: "You now spend at least one-quarter to one-third of your time in research."

So most parents don't educate their children about money and schools definitely do not. I heard the worst financial and career advice imaginable from college professors. This is more about personal finance than investing. Buy it before you apply to med school. The author repeatedly points out that most physicians don't earn that much anymore but are tempted to live as if they do. Much of the book offers common sense suggestions such as spend far less than you earn and save the rest. Perhaps the highlight of the book is that the author suggests that if you know enough to determine if a financial advisor is knowledgeable and isn't going to rape you with fees, then you know enough that you don't need a financial advisor. In my experience, that is largely true, a bit like choosing your physician.

You don't know what you don't know so either you can read a lot of Suze Orman or you can hire a smart CFA. However, be aware that a CFA is not an accountant and not a real estate, estate planing, or tax attorney. The portion on investing is perhaps too superficial. The author does cover personal finance such as disability insurance, excess liability, student loans and so on. I take issue with his advice on taxes. He suggests pushing the boundaries when paying taxes. Yes, there are some grey areas, and yes you might save a few dollars pushing those until you trip an IRS flag and are audited. Then you will pay your accountant for the audit and if you fight it, you will hire a tax attorney at $400 per hour. Assuming that you are right and that you win (and the first does not in any way guarantee the second) your expenses will be substantial, and if they are larger than your tax savings, too bad. In addition, you will likely be audited several more times. Congress writes tax laws, the IRS writes the tax code, and then there is case law; there is no one person on the planet who understands it all.

I've purchased Mr. Kilpatrick's updated version of this book over the years, but this is the first time it's been available on Kindle and what a delight! There is a lot of information in this book and having it on Kindle makes it even easier to read. I've read most of the books out there on Warren Buffett and have also read the annual reports going back to 1977. Here's the bottom line: If I could only have one book on Mr. Buffett, this would be it. It's comprehensive, packed with great information and you'll get an occasional bit of both Mr. Buffett's and Mr. Kilpatricks's wit. I enjoy reading books that are a little "fun" and this one is. Enjoy.

This review applies to Parts I, II and III here on Kindle. Make sure you get all three parts.

The son of one of world's richest billionaires, Peter Buffett received from his dad what many could call a dubitable inheritance: a $90K check at age 19. Period. Peter was raised to expect nothing unearned. He understood from early on that his father's substantial fortune would never trickle down his way, because he needed to find his own path, prove himself, make his own living, and discover his self-worth, self-respect, and the meaning of his life all on his own. His true inheritance was less tangible: uncompromising moral and ethical values, true love of knowledge and learning, and a strong work ethic that was based not on acquiring wealth but on committing to his passion. Eventually Peter carved out his own successful career as a music composer and author, and later also created a way to give back to society by starting a foundation that helps girls and women find equality and opportunities.

Children born to wealth are often passionless or indifferent: they have little motivation to work because they take everything for granted. Oftentimes, as well, parents misguidedly give to their children in excess, trying to make up for their own lacks while growing up. This little book offers many insights that may help all find the right attitude and perspective to discover true passion and joy in their lives.

Great advice, although it's a little dated and therefore doesn't contain some of his newest advice. The pictures and annotations with this book are stupid though, and we could all do with just the content

This book is at the same time in a rewarding but ungrateful genre. Learning from the best is always worthwhile and getting to know the secrets of those who have been the most successful in equity markets never fails to interest a wide audience. Still, profiling a collection of famous investors and turning this into a book has been done numerous times before – it is hard to add much to what has been written previously. In Superinvestors Matthew Partridge, a UK financial journalist, historian and previous investment bank employee, presents his selection of 20 investors to study. Further, the author takes on the hard task of rating those profiled and name the “best” investor of all times.

The structure of the book is – as expected – fairly simple. After a brief introduction 20 “super investors” are portrayed and the book finishes off with the conclusions the author draws from the many individual fates and fortunes. For each investor the reader is served with a short personal and professional history, a discussion on the investor’s method, his performance and potential mistakes made. Then Partridge seeks to distill some learnings from the above and ends the section with a rating where the investor gets a score from 1 to 5 on performance, longevity, influence and ease of replication for the private investor. Many of the profiled names like George Soros, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham and Peter Lynch will be well known to many readers.

Although it’s always arguable who should be included in such an illustrious group I would have made some different choices. Even if it is quaint that Paul Samuelson privately acted at odds with what he preached as the high priest of efficient market theory I don’t think that his profile, nor the one on fellow economist David Ricardo (1772-1823), adds much to the discussion and the venture capital pioneers of George Doriot and Kleiner & Perkins feels a bit misplaced. Further, there is obviously much to learn from Jack Bogle but he is more successful as a businessman and advocate of an idea than a successful stock market investor. Who would I want to see instead? Jim Simons, James Chanos and Seth Klarman could in my view be fair alternatives. On the other hand the book benefits from the author’s deep knowledge of UK investors who are less documented in literature and Anthony Bolton’s track record in China will come as a surprise to many – as it did to me.

In my opinion the texts on UK investors Neil Woodford and Nick Train were the most interesting. Also, even though I had heard of Robert Wilson as an early short seller, I knew nothing of him. Overall Partridge, with some minor disagreements, in my view gives a short but fully accurate picture of the investors I had previous knowledge of. The author is clearly well read and even the cover is inspired by Ken Fisher’s 1984 book Super Stocks. My only objections are that I think George Soros’ concept of reflexivity is too vaguely described and given its huge influence on the hedge fund community and its closeness to the current concepts of complexity theory and adaptive markets it is a bit harsh to say that the theory has left little mark. Further, to describe what Ed Thorp did as “nothing new, but more systematic” is to diminish a person who long before academics Black and Myron Scholes came up with an option pricing model that allowed rational derivatives trading.

Even though the book is over 200 pages long it is an easy read and it is quite tempting to time after time read “just one more profile”. The conclusions at the end are sound but hardly novel. So who does Partridge rank as the best investor of all times? Those on the short list are Philip Fisher, Buffett, Bogle and Graham (skip Bogle and add Soros and Thorp and I would have agreed). The winner is Graham, much thanks to his huge influence on later day investors. A good choice.

It is never possible to do an investor justice over 6 to 8 pages. However, it is through books like this that many up and coming investors have gotten a glimpse of their role models for the first time.

This is a review by investingbythebooks.com

The most you will learn from reading this book is that: 1. You should go find a famous guy and write almost anything you want and some fool like me will buy it. 2. Nice trees are dying and being made into paper for what? Stuff like this. That is bad. Bottom line: There is almost no meaningful content in this book. 90% of this is obvious and has been said many times before and better. Rich and famous people are always seeking new and better ways to take your money with the least invested on their part, and this book proves it. Give your money to starving children in India. Do not give your money to Warren Buffet and his co-horts; they already have tons of money and they have no advice for you that is worth anything.

Absolutely awful. Book in this case means a 1/10th of an inch pamphlet filled with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and content/quotes that could have been pulled out of any Warren Buffet biography and typed up in an afternoon.The pages are too thick to be used as toilet paper and the book itself isn't big enough to prop up my wonky coffee table ( It may be for yours but I can't comment on that)

I like both Buffettology and Buffettology II as books I can go back, skim through, and find straightforward ways of examining the worth of stocks. I give it 5 stars as being excellent for steering you to good investments. But don't assume every other method and every investor is as stupid as the book claims: it will lead you to value this book's opinion alone too much.

In Buffettology II, I'm sure many novice investors come away with the idea that EVERY major investor is an idiot and that through Warren-like value-investing methods you will have a tremendous advantage on the rest of the market. They also treat long-understood investing phenomena, like a long-lasting competitive advantage, as if it's only being revealed to the world through this book. For example: "...we'll let you in on one of Warren's best kept secrets. He figured out that some, but not all, companies have what he calls a "durable competitive advantage."" HE figured out? Ben Graham and Phil Fisher were writing books about it while Warren was just getting out of college. Phil Fisher's "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits," published in 1958, goes to great length explaining the situations to look for in which a company has such an advantage.

I'm glad such a thing is discussed in the book while at the same time I'm outraged the authors LIE to me to make the book look more unique and valuable. EVERY chapter includes some kind of thing like that which makes you wonder at the authors' motives.

Why do they need to lie and exaggerate if they're really providing the best way for the average person to evaluate stocks without going through the whole, formal, "asset value, earnings power value, growth value" math calculations required by advanced methods as per Greenwald, et al's "Value Investing"?

The shelves are full of books that are aimed at helping you learn how to invest like Warren Buffett does. I generally find those books to be a waste of time. If you want to invest like Warren Buffett, why not simply buy Berkshire Hathaway's stock? Well, this book takes the positive side of that perspective. In the process, you can learn much more about how Mr. Buffett has invested for himself and others at Berkshire Hathaway. Where most books about Mr. Buffett's work are overly simple and general, this one captures many fine subtleties. The book's main weakness is that Mr. Miles is not open to seeing the vulnerabilities for the future in Mr. Buffett's approach.
This book had an interesting genesis. It started as posts by Mr. Miles on the Motley Fool bulletin boards. I suspect that we will see more examples of this kind of authorship in the future, and think that it is a good idea. Authors get feedback on-line about their ideas, and can create a market for the book at the same time. Very nicely done!
The book contains literally 101 arguments in favor of buying and holding Berkshire Hathaway stock. I suspect that there was a target number set, because some of the arguments repeat each other. The appendix is very valuable in providing more fundamental perspectives on buying stocks for a new investor.
Space limits me from praising or critiquing each concept, so I will just focus on a few points. In doing this, though, you should realize that there is a lot of very solid and valuable material here.
First, just for the record, let me note that there are CEOs whose stocks have outperformed Mr. Buffett's record in the last 10 years. These are concentrated in the high technology and service business areas. I suspect that there will be more and more of these in years to come. My studies of the most successful CEOs show that these success rates are improving. Where Mr. Buffett was once near the top of the list, he increasingly is falling in the rankings. This is primarily due to his focus on avoiding technology investments. Those have been and will be the driving force of economic growth, and it's tougher to grow fast if you stick to the sidelines. As Mr. Miles points out, this avoidance does have advantages -- your stock is not as volatile on the downside (as we have seen in the last year or so).
Second, you will find it helpful to compare this book to John Bogle's excellent book, Common Sense About Mutual Funds, which makes the case for indexed fund investing. In many ways, Mr. Buffett outdoes the index funds -- by having lower management fees, less stock turnover, and fewer taxes incurred.
Third, Mr. Miles is in denial about that fact that Mr. Buffett is a man in his 70s. You will not be able to invest with Mr. Buffett after he is no longer active as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. While no one knows when that will happen, and no one wishes it to happen, it will happen regardless. Mr. Miles treats this like it could be the best thing that ever happened to the company. I would have liked to have seen more discussion about the downside risk. Avoiding risk and losses, after all, is what Mr. Buffett's approach is all about. I know of no investment vehicle that did as well after its founder retired.
Even if you have no interest in buying Berkshire Hathaway stock, you can learn a lot about good investing from seeing what Mr. Buffett does, as expressed here.
As to buying Berkshire Hathaway, for most people this would be a good move as an alternative to some of the funds they would otherwise put into mutual funds that are actively managed. But I would argue that no one should have more than 10 percent of their financial assets here. A lot of Mr. Buffett's big winners in the past (like Gillette and Coca-Cola) are having real problems. He is also fueling the company's growth with exotic insurance products. The world is full of people who found the market could turn on them in specialized financial services.
If you do want to buy this stock, wait until the current bear market on Wall Street is over. The stock will probably be cheaper then. But feel free to follow and learn about Berkshire Hathaway in the meantime.
A good thing to do is to think about who is going to be the next Warren Buffett and is younger, and invest some there as well. Who are your candidates? I have mine.
Achieve your financial goals, whatever they may be!

I have gone to the meeting for the past 5 years, but missed this one. After getting over my initial FOMO, I was delighted to find out that this book would arrive just in time for me to enjoy while I watched the webcast of the meeting.

And then I REALLY had FOMO.

Cunningham/Cuba do a phenomenal job of curating and arranging these perspectives to imitate the environment of the meeting and surrounding weekend events, and will really make it feel like you're there. If you don't go, you'll really wish to be a part of the events/networking/ethos.

One thing that I was very impressed with was a constant theme of humility. These are accounts from some of the most studied scholars and biggest names in investing and finance, and there was a constant sense of respect and lifelong learning. In Cunningham's forward, he speaks about "coaching" the essayists not to use the regular tropes-- "woodstock of capitalism," etc-- Cunningham's guidance REALLY made the difference when it came to these essays. I was afraid they would get repetitive, especially having been to Omaha a couple of times myself, but no, each essay was extremely enthralling to the very end.

A must-read for investors of any stripe, growth or value. This book, written by a couple of the most popular professors at Columbia Business School, explains the innovations in the field of value investing as practiced by some of the most successful investors in the field. (fair disclosure: I took Prof. Greenwald's courses in 2007) This book successfully bridges the gap between the traditional Graham & Dodd style of value investing to what works today. Although it's a paperback, it's written with the density of a textbook. The writing style is not light, and the actual meat of the book takes some time to wade through. If you don't have some experience in accounting or corporate finance, then Joel Greenblatt's The Little Book That Beats the Market is good to read first.

The substance of this book is a process for modern value investing: value investing is not investing in lousy companies just because they appear cheap. The authors also teach a structured way to value a company. Finally, the authors address how to value growth.

First, before reading this book I had the mistaken impression that value investing was all about investing in the ugliest, least interesting company you could find just because it had a low P/E ratio. I was completely wrong! (Maybe I have attended too many stock pitch sessions and heard too many poultry stocks and encyclopedia companies get pitched.) Modern value investing, according the authors: "When B. Graham went scouring financial statements looking for his net-nets, it did not concern him that he may have known little about the industry in which he found his targets. All he was concerned with were asset values and a margin of safety by that measure. A contemporary value investor had better be able to identify and understand the sources of a company's franchise and the nature of its competitive advantages. Otherwise he or she is just another punter, taking a flier rather than making an investment." What a breath of fresh air to read this passage.

Second, this book lays out a structured way to value a company by first looking at reproduction costs of assets, then earnings power, and finally the value of profitable growth. I, like the authors, find traditional DCF valuations to be plagued by false precision. The authors' more practical method starts by adjusting the balance GAAP balance sheet to calculate the cost of the assets for a potential business entrant. Next, the company is valued based on the earnings generates consistently, assuming no growth. A key insight is the value of the franchise: the difference between asset value and Earnings Power Value is the value created by a company that has significant competitive advantage. Last, the value of profitable growth is considered.

As a self-admitted recovering growth stock addict, I learned from this book that value investors are skeptical about growth for two reasons. One reason is that it is so hard to predict, but more important, many times growth is not worth much. Unless the return on capital (ROC) of the company is higher than the cost of capital, growth does not create value. (I am a slow learner; Greenblatt's example in The Little Book That Beats the Market of opening an additional gum store is even clearer to me.) The growth matrix and formulas in the book were a revelation to me. The surprising thing is how little multiple expansion a stock deserves based on growth. Unless a company truly has a franchise, expanding into other areas and "diversifying" the business often destroys value. And growth for growth's sake will not make a stock go up.

This book brings value investing into the modern stock market. Modern value investors still use traditional valuation principles in a structured way, but they also consider the value of growth and the attractiveness of the business. What a relief, I not restricted to buying typewriter and pay phone stocks! The authors quote Warren Buffett: It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

I find this subject of Stocks and Shares and investing on the Stock Markets a real minefield. I bought this book hoping it would shed a little light on it. It really did. The author writes in a really straiightforward way and makes it easy to understand and to follow. Don't get me wrong you won't know all the ins and outs of Stock Market Trading and how to invest just by reading this book but it will really help you get a basic understanding and give you a good grounding to start investing in the Stock Market.

My review...by Robert W. Johns.

I purchased this on kindle and it arrived on my device without any problem...

This book was fun and informative. I bought this to see how Mr Thompson thinks, as the
are few books available which are actually written by individuals working in Value investment
based money management, running other peoples money as such.

I have been a value investor for five years full time and was looking for something to fill some gaps
and as a reference point. This book simply delivers, the section on discounted cash flows would be
invaluable to someone just starting out in qualitative analysis and understanding future business cash flows.

Scott writes with a relaxed and honest candor, never becoming pretentious or overbearing. It is evident he
has a genuine passion for Value investing and this shows in the highly complementary description he gives
of famous Value investors.

These kind of things are what got me into this industry, the is a considerable amount of kindness, honesty
and integrity found in the famous past, present professional practitioners of this investment approach. No doubt
many other such individuals will be the same in the future. There's a good introduction to Scott's influences and sets
a nice theme for the book.

Sometimes even those with an excellent memory can benefit from reading what they may have forgotten in time and
this book is one of those great reference guides to keep you mind sharp. The author has an MBA and in many countries
it can be difficult to hold a relevant MBA and be a value investor just down to the practicality's of it all. Therefore his line
of thinking has been of a benefit to me.

All in all i definitely picked up a few golden nuggets throughout the text and some insights making the purchase worth while.
Most of the big ideas are well represented here and beginners would do well to read this book before the classics to get
a good framework for how the goal posts have changed with market efficiency.

This reviewer would be happy to see this text in a university coarse. Although
such a coarse would undoubtedly require more material. Value investing cant be taught in a
day but you can get the bug that fast!.

I had heard of Philip L. Carret, but not in detail. There is a section with a transcript on his personality and style. This was
the highlight of the book for me as he had an incredible money management record and i am interesting in learning more.

So i have withheld one star as customary for me. I only give 5 stars to a few people and those people are Ben Graham
, Charlie Munger and of coarse Warren Buffett. My only criticism is that the book contains many quotes. Who actually originally
said some of these things first i believe may have been in some instances lost to the hands of time. I may well be wrong
and this is simply nitpicking.

Robert W. Johns

I listened to this book basically because I wanted to learn a bit about Soros, Buffett and Volcker, which this book was pretty good for. Certainly not a full biography, but enough to give a good intro. More than that, it was a discussion about how these three pragmatists views compared to the academics views, and basically makes the case that common sense and pragmatism wins the day both when viewed against the dogmas of the liberals or the conservative academics. Its a worthwhile read in that light and I actually found more helpful than Trillion Dollar Meltdown in understanding, at a high level, what was missed by the authorities.

I learned more about business from reading Rittenhouse's little book on the legendary "Oracle of Omaha" than in any economics course or investors' seminar. It is wonderfully written--short--with stories within stories. It's funny. And heart-warming. And you will learn A LOT about money--yours and everyone else's.

You will also learn a lot about what our mothers said was "the rarest thing in the whole world"--common sense. And even "obfuscation". (And not just how to spell it.)

With rapier swords (and wit!), one financial genius and one extraordinarily bright and engaging author will help you navigate the murky waters of high finance. It's a joyful sail. (And good reading for a short plane ride.)

Don't miss this little gem.

My only disappointment is that the publishers didn't put the photo of Buffett with the Sees Candy box tucked under his arm on the cover rather than on the title page. But they will surely remedy this in the second edition.

Nan Elliot
Author/Filmmaker
Anchorage, Alaska
April 27, 2010

It was fun to read the Facebook House. It's like watching a movie and getting to know Mark, Sean and Dustin more, from their work habits, their typical dressing styles, to what they usually love to eat, all these interesting details while these young, determined, soon-to-be famous kids are just starting out. I love how Judy described her first impression about Mark, how she felt Mark's determination and confidence in his future success the very first time she met him. Something we all need to learn from this young but now very successful and rich man.

The book, like the Facebook House has a very interesting vibe in it. Maybe because I'm just fascinated to read about how famous people started out, or just with the way it is written. Simple, light and fun to read, yet very motivating for people who are starting out to be entrepreneurs like me.

Before I can truly review this book, I need to provide some background. I'm not a Parrothead, although I know Parrotheads. Like many non-followers, I have tagged along with other hardcore Jimmy Buffett fans to several shows over the past decades (Pine Knob, Buckeye Lake, The Palace, etc.) because seeing Jimmy live is, quite simply, a good time with friends. Whether you know the legends or just like the music, the concerts are a fun evening out (or whole day... or weekend). I originally purchased this book for a fan, the type that lives and breaths all things Jimmy. He, after devouring the book, passed it back to me and told me I HAD to read it.

From a non-fan perspective, this book is DEEP. Not deep in the philosophical sense, but deep in the shear amount of details and research that must have gone into the collection of stories and history within its pages. The book starts out with a lovely short chapter on the formation of the band. It reads more like a novel and is beautifully and vividly described. Even though I didn't know all the characters per say, I was able to follow the action. Hard core fans will have no issues following the story of Jimmy's arrival in Key West. The second chapter then jumps back into time to some family history, specifically Grandfather Buffett, the sea captain. While this chapter was a bit more academic and read more like history than novel, it does set the subtle ebb and flow of the book, like waves on the beach, skillfully moving from story telling to history lessons in the Encyclopedia Buffett. The book mostly follows this pattern, jumping from scene to scene, and through various places and times.

As a fan of history, and a good biography, I found the tales and history surrounding Mr. Buffett fascinating and well told. There is so much lore surrounding the legend of Jimmy Buffett, it was really fun to see the origins of the folklore (like any good hero, there is typically some truth to the surrounding myths). Additionally, after reading through all the history I feel quite lazy in comparison. The Buffetts and the extended family of personalities that have come and gone from the Coral Reefer band have (wildly in some cases) accomplished way more than I could ever hope to in my lifetime. The productivity of the collective is amazing, and Jimmy is STILL going, not so much the legend of years past... but still traveling, touring, and transforming into the ultimate master of brand and marketing he is today.

Even though I had to web search for some of the references in the book (note: Parrotheads will likely not have this issue), I still found every chapter well worth the read. This was obviously a labor of love for the author, and I suspect it was a blast to research, collect these tales, and spin the yarns. Peering over at Mr. White's other offering Springsteen: Album by Album , which seems to be quite a different type of book, he does like his musical icons.

Everyone in the UK has heard about Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. But how many have heard of Noah Kagan, one of the whizzkids who worked with Zuckerberg while the company was still trundling along the runway?

This is a fascinating insider account into Kagan's all-too-brief time at the company in its start-up days and is replete with insights into the student-vibe corporate culture of the web sensation that Facebook became.

It also confirms much of what many of us know or heard of Zuckerberg, the ostensible kid genius... Not everything about him is commendable; to me, Zuckerberg appears ruthless in his dealings with other human beings which, of all his manifold attributes, is a horrible ingredient in his success.

Kagan, for his part, is refreshingly self-deprecating (which is so un-American for an American). And very commendably, he refuses to mope or harbour spite over his dismissal from Facebook. If anything, the experience appears to have focussed his energies on becoming what he now is: one of the top two or three experts within a small pantheon of world-class online marketers.

In fact, it was through reading his blog that I discovered his web marketing genius - and generosity towards his readers; the book and his time with Zuckerberg were later discoveries.

In any case, I can only commend this book as a 5 star experience. I know giving it 4 might have added some balance to all the glowing reviews over on the US Amazon, but I can only be honest about this. 5 stars it is!

I got this book in October 2010 based on a recommendation from either BullionVault.com or another website devoted to providing a dissenting view to mainstream economics. It was first published in 1975, just four years after the Nixon administration had severed the last tie between gold and the U.S. dollar by closing the international “gold window” and terminating the right of foreign governments to exchange dollars for gold. At that time the prospect of an American hyperinflation seemed far off, even as inflation was rising fast, and those scratchy old silent-film clips of forlorn Germans pushing wheelbarrowfuls of banknotes to the bakery to buy bread were quaint and unreal-looking.

As I type these words the price of gold is US$1,818 per ounce, an increase of 4400% since 1971, and last week Switzerland, long a bastion of monetary probity, gave up on maintaining the value of its franc and pegged it instead to the moribund Euro, joining the other major currencies in a death-spiral of competitive devaluation. For those aware of what hyperinflation is, the possibility of experiencing it for ourselves is becoming ever more plausible and imminent. Adam Fergusson’s book gives a detailed picture of how hyperinflation—the death of a paper currency—played out in a modern industrial economy in the 1920s. It’s not a pretty sight.

I never knew much about the Weimar hyperinflation, but assumed that it had something to do with the payment of war reparations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. And while Fergusson’s topic is not really the cause of the hyperinflation, he does eventually come out and say that war reparations probably had nothing to do with it. Instead we see a fledgling republic facing severe social and economic problems, but whose leadership throughout remains stubbornly timid and ignorant. The leaders of both the government and its central bank, as well as newspaper editors and other leaders of opinion, were almost unanimous in asserting that the inflation had nothing to do with the runaway printing of banknotes, which they saw as an effect rather than as a cause of rocketing prices.

Hyperinflation inflicts severe suffering on almost everyone except those able to profit by making bets on the collapse of the currency. The suffering, though, is very unequally distributed, and the injustice of the whole process is one of its most striking features. With a whole generation of children malnourished, women selling their bodies for a pork chop, and retired civil servants dropping dead on the street from hunger and cold, you also have farmers hoarding bumper crops, unwilling to sell for worthless paper money, and industrialists in a frenzy of factory-building to make use of cheap credit. Some of the best parts of the book are extracts from the journals and letters of housewives describing what they see around them. They witness mob violence and exchange their pianos for potatoes.

In other ways though I found the book to be a dry read, and I felt that it was really addressed to people who were already students of this period of German history and had a grasp of the people and events of that time. The author assumes a knowledge of the time and place that in my case was lacking, which made the reading tougher going. I also found that his style lacked fluency, which made things harder as well. A sentence taken at random: “The uncertainties to which these postponements gave rise in large measure accounted for the wild fluctuations of the mark during the year.” Another writer would have put this is a more readable way.

All of that said, this book was for me very readable because of its relevance to the events unfolding around me in the world. The enormous federal budget deficits in the United States are starting to look like the Weimar deficits, and although printing presses are no longer used to create money, dollars are being created by the trillion—a figure that became familiar in Germany in the early 1920s. When I go shopping I’m struck by how much less my money buys than even a year ago, and I fully expect that prices will only accelerate upward from here.

But does that mean we’re headed for actual hyperinflation? According to writers like James Turk of GoldMoney.com and John Williams of ShadowStats.com, yes we are. Williams, a longtime statistician with the U.S. federal government, thinks it will be in the next year or two.

But are our governments as timid or as deep in denial as the Weimar republic? I’ll leave that question with you. Another thing I’ll leave with you is a favorite quote from another writer, Henry Hazlitt, an American journalist on economics and finance. In 1946 he wrote these words:

"Inflation discourages all prudence and thrift. It encourages squandering, gambling, reckless waste of all kinds. It often makes it more profitable to speculate than to produce. It tears apart the whole fabric of stable economic relationships. Its inexcusable injustices drive men toward desperate remedies. It plants the seeds of fascism and communism. It leads men to demand totalitarian controls. It ends invariably in bitter disillusion and collapse."

If you’re looking for a refutation of Hazlitt’s points, you won’t find it in When Money Dies.

I read Rich Dad Poor Dad books and that of course educated me a lot, but I think that after you read those books you still have to have a more detailed constrictive book that should guide you through all the obstacles of an entrepreneur, you need someone to push you through the hard times every entrepreneur goes through -not just you..- (and that's not gonna be your boss) so when no one holds you accountable you can hit the snooze button but your business will fail, Anik really goes through the steps of taking away the obstacles so you can succeed, just one example that helped me with a business idea from this book, to stop focusing on many ideas (even it feels more cool..) and only focus on one idea and master it, so that's what I did, and I'm deeply involved in putting up this one business, I would never hold this far if I would be busy with other ideas at the same time. it may sound simple but all those small distractions or things mentioned in this book delays your success and eventually make you failing. so I would definitely recommend this book if you have an urge to become an entrepreneur but don't seem to succeed as you would want to.

I use the research site GuruFocus almost daily. It’s my go-to source for fundamental stock research, and the screeners and graphing tools alone would be well worth the subscription cost.

So, I was thrilled to find out that GuruFocus founder Charlie Tian, PhD recently authored a book, Invest Like a Guru: How To Generate Higher Returns At Reduced Risk With Value Investing.

Tian doesn’t have a background in finance. He’s a scientist with a PhD in physics and an expert in fiber optics and lasers. Perhaps because of his unorthodox background Tian approaches the investing process in a scientific way, picking apart the strategies of successful investors to see how they work. Much of Invest Like a Guru – and GuruFocus too, for that matter – is focused on the strategies of wildly successful value investors such as Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch and Donald Yacktman.

The dominant theme of the book is quality. Buffett famously said “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price,” and Tian spends most of Invest Like a Guru expanding on that core idea. Chapter 6 is particularly useful as a 20-point checklist of criteria to look for when seeking out quality companies, including consistent profitability, capital efficiency and insider ownership.

But while Invest Like a Guru is full of solid advice in what to look for in a stock, it’s far more useful in telling you what to avoid. As a case in point, Tian dedicates a chapter to deep-value investing, and I personally consider this the most important chapter in the book. I myself have gotten suckered into deep-value plays in the past, and they rarely seem to work out as planned or on the timeframe I had hoped.
Deep-value investing is what Warren Buffett called “buying dollar bills for 40 cents” earlier in his career. Later, he mostly eschewed the strategy, calling it “cigar-butt” investing.

The rationale is easy enough to understand: It’s hard to lose money buying a company that is worth more dead than alive. If a company’s net assets are worth significantly more than its current market price, management could sell off the company for spare parts and deliver a decent profit to shareholders. And generally, that would be the right move. Remember, if a stock is trading that cheaply, chances are good that it is a company with very deep problems.

The problem is that it never quite works out that way. Monetizing assets is messy and complicated, and management has a vested interest in keeping the enterprise going. And the longer they do, the more value gets eroded.

As a case in point, consider the case of Sears Holdings. Eddie Lampert and Bruce Berkowitz – both respected value investors – have effectively bet their careers on Sears in the belief that its real estate and brand portfolios represented massive untapped value. They problem is that the Sears retail business continues to deteriorate around them. They may eventually unlock the value they had hoped to, but it will have cost them dearly in money, reputational damage and – perhaps most importantly – opportunity cost. Had they focused their energies elsewhere, they might have made far better profits with far less headache.

Buffett himself learned the same lesson with Berkshire Hathaway, which was a failing textile producer when Buffett originally bought it. Berkshire eventually failed, but only after Buffett had wasted untold time and energy (not to mention money) trying to keep it afloat. Buffett called his purchase of Berkshire Hathaway a “$100 billion mistake.”

Tian finishes the chapter with the simple observation that “There are better ways to make money.”

If you’re new to value investing, I highly recommend Invest Like a Guru. But even if you’re a seasoned investor, you’ll find plenty of insightful food for thought. My compliments to Tian on a solid addition to the value investor’s library.

I have read this book thoroughly! I liked it very much. I find it very interesting, catchy and inspiring. Many people can learn from Warren Buffett, from his experience and knowledge. The most important thing for reaching happiness and success is hoping for that and believing in yourself. One must have courage ad faith in himself. This book can teach that not always the knowledge can help to become a successful man, but also one's courage, faith and strength. Warren Buffett is a great role model for all those, who want to become successful in business and in life.

I purchased "The Private Equity Playbook" by Adam Coffey and, frankly, I couldn't put it down. As a former owner of a nationally recognized middle-market service company. I wish that I had this book a few years ago. The author states that his book is a primer on the private equity business, but I believe that it is much more--I've read other books on the subject, but for brevity, de-mystification and just plain enjoyment this one beats them all--by a country mile.

Coffey is a maverick. He sees himself as a blue -collar CEO/ He left home at 17. After a stint in the Army, he worked as an engineer and then changed to the business side , rising to middle-management with General Electric. Private equity recruiters came calling and he listened. For the last 20 years, Coffey has been President/CEO of three different national private equity backed companies. Each company has grown exponentially under his watch. And, he tells you how.

The author likens the experience to building a winning team. He introduces two players , "Josh" and "Rose" ( a mirror of his former self ). Josh is the CEO of a middle-market service company. He has built the company into a recognized leader in it's field, and is thinking about selling out. He knows little about private equity and wonders if this is a viable exit strategy.--Rose is a " Fortune 500" middle-market executive who gets calls from private equity recruiters looking for a CEO/COO in a private equity backed middle-market company. She is doing well now, but wonders whether she should make a career change

The heart of the book is Coffey's recounting of his own journey in the problems that he faced and decisions that he made. Among the many points that the book covers: private equities growth from 312 firms in 1990 to over 5300 firms today with over $3 trillion in assets under management--over 50% of middle-management companies to have a private equity partner in the next few years-- various type of funds today--the "playing field", the players and how they fit into the decision making for Josh and Rose--the rules of the game and the specific questions that Josh and Rose must ask themselves as well as the private equity firms--why an investment banker is needed--why the acronyms IRR,MOIC and DPI are so important as measurement guidelines--how partnering with a private equity firm is an accounting game changer--how EBIDTA can be fluffed up to accelerate growth--growth strategies through organic growth , price, product or service, rebranding and blue ocean search--equity creation for management through the ABC waterfall--why IRR is mandatory in the game--buy and build strategy with mergers and acquisitions--how to beat a recession-- how outside consultants could actually be worth the cost--why a private equity partner can create generational wealth for both Josh and Rose for years to come, " The gift that keeps on giving".

Everything in the book is tied to Coffey's personal experiences in putting together a winning team. This is a fascinating read, down-to-earth and hands-on. Highly recommended

I believe I am the first person to review this book who has actually purchased it. So, this review has no bias but my own and is totally independent.

It is important to state, this book does not provide you with exact rules saying you must buy here, sell here, place a stop here and diversify across these specific markets, and so on. So, please do not think you are buying a set of exact "Rules" in a list format. Fortunately, these tactics are not shared with us as the majority of us would not stick to it or understand its purpose.

It is even more important to know the strategies Mr. Hite uses and continues to use are shared with us. Following the trend, cutting losses, diversify to reduce risk and catch trends are shared with examples. This gives us the ability to design a system which we will stick to and can be profitable. As long as we use the mentioned fundamental "Rules". My own backtesting as shown this to be true.

There is plenty of information provided in this book which personally gives me more ideas to test and improve my own systems. It also provides ideas which I never even considered. "Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience".

The book tells us how Mr. Hite applied trend following strategies not just in the market but in life. Can you really be a trend follower in the markets but not in your personal life? Will there be a greater chance of internal conflict which may break your rules if you are not?

The additional advantage of reading this book is that it fills in the gap to Mr. Hites interviews in Market Wizards, also, the information provided by Alex Greyserman in Trend Following with Managed Futures and Mr. Covel series of books such as Trend Following and Trend Commandments, and many other books. This was really helpful to me as I had a lot of questions I felt on Mr. Hite could answer. This book has answered a lot of those questions.

I would rate this book amongst Edwin Lefevre - Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator, Nicolas Darvas - How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market, Michael W. Covel - Trend Following, and Jack D. Schwager - Market Wizards.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone beginning or experienced in trading.

Thank you Mr. Hite. The book was well written and very clear.

This book will gives you necessary key points about how to make work and relationship productive in professional life and personal life. Majority all points are covered based on Buffet's experience. This book is good for entrepreneurs, management people's, businessman.

relatively short book, but over simplified at times - you should “zig” when the crowd “zags” typical contrarian emphasis (you can’t beat the market if you buy the same things, you need to buy different things, but still be right). Good review of Buffett’s Dempster Diving days where he was doing cigar butt investing, buying graham style investments and squeezing/liquidating them. Then he talks about the magic formulae (see readings about Joel Greenblatt) beating the market. Then he talks about the aquirer’s multiple which beats the magic formulae - similar idea with magic formula, except special emphasis on low debt and high cash holdings of the company. He really emphasizes reversion to the mean in terms of stock price and leading businesses profits declining overtime due to competition. He has an antigrowth stance generally speaking - states that only warren buffett is able to find business with protective moats that protects its profits.

I appreciate content about activist investing - although this is very difficult for a low net worth individual investor to do (buying a significant percentage of a business in oder to influence management to unlock value and run a better business). I would give this book a B to B+ (I tend to have high standards now that I’ve read so many investment books - but I must admit, I probably don’t follow Carl Ichan as much as I should for coattail activist investing).

He argues that returns are better if you buy fair companies at wonderful prices vs wonderful companies at fair prices. Which I may or may not agree with - I think it depends - it's kind of like the argument of where is the best value? that can be found in growth stocks or "cheap stocks" with cheap stocks you're hoping that it's cheaper than it's liquidating value, assuming that you are able to take over and liquidate the company or hope someone else does the work for you and is successful. sometimes companies are cheap for good reason - i've had my fair share of those. I just can't sleep soundly and ignore news using the liquidating strategy. If i had all the time and little more money, i think activist investing would be good for really advanced people - people who actually manage money for a living.

This book is thoughtful and evocative . As a friend of the author , I would love to give it 5 stars but I have to apply the iceberg principle which says that 90% is never seen . Eric's vision of the world we need to improve is flawed only in so far as thinking that so many people don't feel the same way he does . Perhaps it is my naivete that leads me to believe that most people are not ships of war but rather ships without rudders . To that extent , Eric offers beautiful and constructive ideas on how to help people find their rudder by reflecting the love of Christ in our own behavior . I hope that most people are not motivated by self aggrandizement but rather , they are fearful of the pain of rejection . We can all share Eric's hope but not if we think so many people are hopeless . Jesus taught us to leave the 99 to search for the one . I hope that everyone reading this book feels moved to touch at least one life and plant a mustard seed of hope in the life of another soul for hope is the seed from which faith grows .

Buffett 101 in Manga form - this illustrated novel is a great 45 minute overview of the Oracle of Omaha. It covers the highlights of his life in a factual and humorous format: How he started in business as a child, his mentor/student relationship with Graham, his additions to Graham's style, and his ongoing trials and tribulations in the market.

This is a great overview book, but just that. Expect to hit the high points, but not a lot of depth. (You need more words and less pictures for that!) Perhaps the greatest use of the book is a gift for Buffettologists to help explain their mania to the unitiated.

Enjoy!

This is the best investment book that I have read and I am a veteran of many investment books having written one myself. In fact, The Intelligent Investor is probably the best investment book ever written. Good investing doesn't require a gigantic IQ, but it does need a proper state of mind, the intellectual framework for recognizing the truth and the ability to keep your emotions from eroding that framework. What I liked the best in the book was the numerous case studies which allowed me to work out my investment decisions on given stock situations and then see what subsequently happened to that stock. The subsequent discussions and the results proved that stock picking can be quite scientific and predictable. The book further proves that the investors worst enemy is often himself/herself. The fault Dear Brutus is not in our stocks but in ourselves for we are underlings. Enthusiasm might do well in other endeavors, but in Wall Street it almost invariably leads to disaster. In Wall Street it's the facts that count not wishful thinking or fantasy as so many have recently learned. Incidentally, I agree with Graham's definition: An investment is one which, upon analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Anything else is a speculation and should be avoided. Follow Graham and you might profit from the folly of others rather than participate in folly yourself.

No tiren el dinero con este libro. Sólo hallarán en él obviedades, lugares comunes, y para colmo, algunos de ellos repetidos.

Superb

This book is not written with reader friendly. An unwanted urgency sentence style was spreaded all over the book. Also looks like direct translation of an English book. But you need not neglect this. Just try it..

I've been interested in learning more about Warren Buffet and his investment style but never had the time to read his books. This book is packed with very vital information about how to invest like the multi-billionaire. I feel I know a lot now on what his secrets are just by getting hold of this book. What struck me the most though is Warren Buffet's passion not for money but for the challenge and responsibility he feels for those less fortunate. Investing for him is a game, a challenge, and not a way to fuel his greed. He insists on being clear about the more important things in life, and these are definitely not material things.

Getting books like this is a start to helping me get on the right track to investing like a pro. One must have self discipline to stick to what one deems profitable in the end and not be swayed by volatile projections in the market.

Es war für mich sehr beeindruckend, in welch einfacher Art der Autor kleinen Kindern - ohne erhobenen Zeigefinger - das Wesen der Demokratie nahe bringt. "Stinkekäfer" oder alle anderen Personen, die der Ansicht sind, dass sie besonders wichtig sind und deshalb ihre Weltsicht als die einzig richtige zu gelten hat, haben anzuerkennen, dass andere das gleiche Recht zur Entfaltung ihrer Persönlichkeit haben. Und wie wichtig Solidarität und Freundschaft im Leben jedes Einzelnen sind.
Nur durch den Zusammenhalt der Freunde gegen Intoleranz und Ignoranz kann sich die Liebe durchsetzen und Marlon und Wesley können zu ihrem Bunnymoon aufbrechen. Ich wünsche ihnen das Beste!
Bei "Beste" fällt mir ein, dass ich die Zeichnungen noch gar nicht erwähnt habe. Tja, ich habe lange überlegt, ob ich damit anfangen sollte. Die liebevoll und aussagekräftig gestalteten Figuren, gehen einem ans Herz. Ich habe das kleine Büchlein als sehr alter Mensch, der weit weg von solcher Art "Lektüre" sein sollte, schon mehrfach angeschaut. Immer wieder finde ich neue Details, die ich mich erfreuen.
Alleine deshalb rechtfertigt sich schon der Preis. Was ich aber besonders erfreulich finde, dass der Gewinn an LGBT-Organisationen überwiesen werden soll, was hoffentlich auch geschieht.
Es bleibt mir nur noch, dem Team meinen herzlichsten Dank zu sagen und ihnen Erfolg im Kampf gegen Intoleranz und rechte Gesinnung zu wünschen. Es steht viel auf dem Spiel - nicht nur für Kaninchen!

It may seem surprising that a review of a “sports book” would appear on my site, where book reviews are essentially reserved for the domain of politics and economics. But that surprise would stem from a gigantic misunderstanding, for Shoedog is no “sports book.” Rather, it is a virtual economics textbook. And one every business student in America should read. Indeed, it is one a certain White House occupant should read as well.

For those interested in sports, as I am, history, as I am, and business, as I am, this book was a tremendous synthesis of the three, in the particular context of describing the birth of one of the greatest brands in American history – indeed, in world history … I doubt the story of a company’s founding and rise to greatness has ever ended a couple decades before the company’s peak, but that is the genius of Shoedog. Nike founder, Phil Knight, begins the story of this iconic brand at the most embryonic of stages, and ends the story in 1980, at their public offering, despite two and a half decades of utter domination that commenced subsequently. The story of Nike to us mere mortals is Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and “Just Do It.” But as readers of this fine book will discover, the real story of Nike took place in the late 1960’s and throughout the 1970’s, as the formative challenges that make a business took place. And if any company would become rightful heir to “Just Do It” — it was Nike.

Nike has employed hundreds of thousands of people over the decades, and has created untold amounts of wealth by giving consumers something they wanted: Initially, a high quality running shoe; eventually, a brand — a belief — an affiliation. But the genius of finding future basketball, track, and golf stars to endorse the brand was a small part of the story of this company’s ascension. The genius that created Nike is the genius of this book: It focused on personnel management, on global cost synergies, on harnessing an international supply chain the likes of which the world had never seen, on overcoming legal adversity, and above all else, managing the challenges of liquidity and capital that nearly any company faces in the early innings of their existence. This is an economics book. It is a tribute to the miracle of free trade which has created more wealth than any other phenomena in the history of civilization. It is a rebuke of the evils of crony capitalism and those rent-seeking piranhas who would attempt to use government alliances to strangle healthy competition.

We are living in an era when forces on the right and the left are capitulating to a childish view of globalization — one seeking to make it a bogeyman for anything and everything — and ignoring the absolutely indisputable evidence for the enhancement of quality of life globalization has created. Few companies better illustrate what matching willing buyers and sellers around the world can mean for consumers, for producers, for shareholders, for employees, and for indeed all stakeholders in a given organization than Nike. While countless others do, for it is a universal lesson, Nike is the story of a young man and his track coach creating $100 billion of wealth that has circulated across a vast, vast ecosystem, by understanding the miracles of global trade. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough for one looking for a biographical narrative version of an economics lesson, versus the academic attempts that often prove too dry. The story of Shoedog was anything but dry, and the message of Shoedog is anything but trite.

This book came at the right time. Three weeks after I had a break up I woke up and cried out to God to bring peace to my heart and help me see the plan he has for me. This book was discovered an hour after my prayer. I knew and saw all the red flags but decided to ignore them because I felt it was growing pains and we would get over the hurdles. I had been praying to God to reveal whether this was the right man for me. Well my ex took the initiative and ended the relationship after 3 months of dating. I was broken, disappointed and hurt because I had invested so much of myself even after 3 months. This book reminded me to trust my intuition, there are good men out there and continue to be open about who you are and what you expect upfront.

This isn't my favorite book or anything, but I think it's important to counter the less-than-insightful commentary posted by the first two reviewers.

For instance, Kim spends her review giving us an explanation of her daily economic theory: you have to work, so why not a crap job? This book helps you understand why not -- because it causes mental and emotional turmoil, it destroys community (workers working together happily) and, ultimately, isn't truly worth the effort. Amazon is notorious for paying warehouse workers low wages and forcing them to take unpaid days off when there isn't enough work, then overworking employees when they're at work. Their tech workers are treated like trash. Read the news stories.

The book shows the arbitrary power of managers and bosses -- all done in the name of making sure the wealthy owners and large shareholders profit off the work of their underpaid employees. Yes, they will automate the warehouses, as soon as it becomes more profitable than dealing with humans who demand decent pay, health insurance and basic rights (which isn't far off). And good riddance.

When technology throws a few million more people out of work, changes will come. And Amazon won't be sucking up taxpayer money through incentives to locate to cities or avoiding paying any federal tax. This book illustrates why that time can't come soon enough. Life shouldn't be filled with work that causes suffering just so you can survive to go back to work.

The new Kindle costs $489 and is capable of downloading any of 285,000 e-books available on Amazon, via Sprint Nextel's high-speed data network (sorry, requires a clumsy workaround outside the U.S. for books, not at all for periodicals or newspapers). Also, no protective carrying case - many users complain it breaks easily.

Sounds like a lot of available books until you focus on new releases (many are not available). Also it's only a black-and-white display roughly the size of a paperback, with a crippled web browser, no video, and not even a backlight. Its content also includes newspapers, for a fee, that mostly can also be accessed for free on the Internet. The "good news" is that it can display content sideways, and handle graphic-heavy content. Barclays Capital predicts Kindle devices will produce $840 million in profit on $3.7 billion in sales in 2012, roughly 20% of current performance.

Both the Washington Post and New York Times will subsidize Kindle purchases, in return for long-term subscriptions to their respective newspapers. However, that is a dubious incentive given their already free availability to viewers, and the fact that Kindle currently does nothing to address newspapers' steep fall in advertising revenues; changing that on Kindle would be annoying, at best.

Amazon has recently substantially increased prices for Kindle e-books - eg. "Education of an American Dreamer" is priced at $19.24, vs. $22.29 for the hard-cover, hardly an attractive differential. (Original Kindle promotions featured a $9.99 price for most downloads. This price increase for downloads makes Kindle DX financially untenable for casual readers; according to a 5/31/09 NYT article, Amazon is losing money at that $9.99 price because it generally is charged $13-!4/copy.) Further, a 7/10/09 WSJ article reports Amazon pricing Kindle editions of legal reference books at only a 20% discount, based on the logic that its ability to provide digital search and bookmarks largely overcomes the disadvantage of not having a physical copy. Another digital advantage would be the ability, for another fee, to instantly update/replace older editions.

Given the large potential for electronic textbooks in medicine, law, and especially the college-student market (the latter would probably also kill off the textbook resale market - another "benefit"), it is easy to suspect that Amazon's Bezos is quietly executing a major strategic change from providing books as cheaply as possible, to finding a new way to milk the market for all its worth. On the plus side, maybe Kindle will allow us to stop building expensive professional law and medical libraries, as well as to save the time and expense of traveling to/from them.

One more feature - users can still deliver business documents via email to their Kindles, for an increased fee, now 15 cents per megabyte. per Walter Mossberg at WSJ. Still wondering, will Kindle DX users be able to download their books on future versions?

Bottom Line: The Amazon Kindle DX is a one-trick pony priced too close to new portable notebooks. Apple, Google, Dell and/or Sony will likely see Kindle DX as an opportunity to restore the focus on lowering book prices. Google ebooks is already headed that direction - allowing its huge collection to be received by any reader

The recording quality is superb. These appear to be remastered, though some of the songs are mono, not stereo.

The box set comes in nice packaging and it includes a booklet of liner notes and some photos. This is a very nice, unexpected addition. This box set would make a very nice gift to send to a friend or family member.

The songs are not in chronological order that they were recorded. This is fine, because the tracks are arranged more story-like. One song will follow another to complete a tale at times.

The best to be said is that the recording quality is excellent. Also, tracks are normalized to each other, so you won't be adjusting the volume constantly or have to do this labor yourself if you draw the same tracks from your collection.

Lastly, the box set arrived in two days, not four to seven. I am very happy with Amazon's service. However, I didn't suspect it had arrived, so I got to my mailbox a day late. I coulda hadda party, but that's my fault, not Amazon's.

Overall, this is either a beginner's set or a set of his best sellers, normalized in volume to each other if you already have some Dylan albums, and it comes with nice liner notes with photos. You can't lose!

If you like Dylan, don't hesitate. The price is right for what you get. I'm sure that any Dylan fan will enjoy this!

When I saw this was from Brazil or whatever country in South America speaks Portuguese, bells went off, alarms sounded and that little voice in the back of my head said "don't buy this, it's a cheap, shoddy rip-off." I had it on VHS and being unable to find an American release of the tour on DVD, decided to take a chance. I was glad I did. Quality-wise, its as good as the VHS tape and shows Dylan and Petty with the Heartbreakers as a superb back-up band in the days before the Traveling Wilburys had been dreamed of. Was this tour perhaps the genesis of that legendary super-group? Makes no difference, if you're a Dylan fan, this belongs in your collection. If you're a Petty fan, it belongs in your collection. Highlights include: Like A Rolling Stone, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Just Like A Woman (one of Dylan's forgotten mid-'60's masterpieces) and others. If you only buy one Dylan DVD, this should be the one. Don't let the Portuguese scare you....it's not subtitled.

Obviously, in the annals of popular music, the work of Bob Dylan matters. To make sense of the title and related objective of this book (which might otherwise seem presumptuous and demeaning) one has to know a little about some recent history of the politics of the Nobel Prize for Literature. (No, not the internal scandal that delayed the issuance of the 2018 Prize to 2019.) In 2016, an American hadn’t won since 1993 (Toni Morrison,) and given the relative volume of publications from America this was coming to be seen as a major “screw you” to the nation’s literary community. The Nobel committee claimed it was because American authors didn’t get their works translated and were too insular with respect to the global literary community. Still, the disparity was on the minds of many. Then, Bob Dylan was issued the Prize. While some who were offended by this disparity were placated, many thought it was an even bigger “screw you” than if the Committee again hadn’t issued it to an American – like it was a “you asked for it, you got it; now shut up for at least the next 15 years!” kind of award. I doubt anyone would deny that, as a pop music lyricist, Bob Dylan is brilliant – if not the best -- but for many that still just made him a middlin’ poet. (Dylan wrote one piece of prose poetry, “Tarantula” as well as “memoirs” [that were apparently largely an act of creative writing,] but only his lyrics could feasibly merit issue of the award.)

It was with that mess in mind that Thomas delivers this book. It seems to be his objective to not just prove that Dylan matters -- generally speaking -- but that Dylan’s work matters as literature – presumably, such that he’s at least as deserving of the Nobel Prize as any living American poet, story-writer, or novelist. The thrust of Thomas’s approach is in showing that Dylan’s work is dialed into the global literary canon. As a classicist, Thomas puts particular emphasis on Dylan’s "stealing" from, and referencing of, Greek and Roman figures like Homer and Ovid. ("Stealing" is used in the sense artists, not lawyers, use the term.) However, he does also show how Dylan uses and references other poets from Shakespeare to an obscure Confederate poet.

So, the logical question is whether Thomas answers his book’s titular question with enough authority to convince the reader that Dylan does matter. Thomas certainly convinces us why Dylan matters enough to have classes taught about him, like the one Thomas teaches a Harvard. However, I can’t say that I was convinced that Dylan is on-par with… for instance, Cormac McCarthy or Salman Rushdie (who resides in the US, as I understand it) as a major literary figure. While Thomas does show that Dylan’s work is literature because Dylan’s work is wrapped up in literature, the only real argument he offers for whether Dylan is at the highest echelon of literature is his intense fan-boy devotion. We see a lot of comments like: “He had all that he needed to write ‘Masters of War,’ the greatest anti-war song ever written.” Not “one of the best,” not “the best, in my opinion,” not “the best rock-n-roll anti-war song,” but a gratuitous presumption that nothing else could be considered in the running enough for there to be a debate. Thomas’s enthusiasm that Dylan is among the biggest artistic geniuses of our time – if not all time – is certainly potent, but not necessarily compelling.

The book is annotated, has a bibliography and a graphic discography.

I enjoyed this book. I learned a lot about the works of Bob Dylan and I found the author’s fervor for Dylan’s songs contagious -- if not altogether convincing that it merits Dylan’s inclusion with Hemingway and Faulkner as an American literary icon. [Though I would not in the least challenge his inclusion as an icon of folk, rock, or pop music.] If you’re interested in Dylan, or this question of whether he’s the best American for the job of Literary Nobel Laureate, this book is worth a read.

I felt I needed to write my experience with this product to give customers more information to make a decision. I was excited I had found a cinnamon scented auto air freshener that some people gave good reviews. I could not give this a good review. I opened the package and took one out and it smelled somewhat strong. I put in my car with windows up and used the car later on. I could not even smell any cinnamon at all. I only smelled the bad smell I was trying to get rid of. I would not recommend this product at all, it is total waste of money and time. I am returning this item in search of a product that really works.

Teenage son loves this backpack! Great quality and too cool for school!

The right shoe is not a new one,, it is look like a used one and i have paid for new pair!!!
As pictures attached,, there is a little dirt in the bottom of the right shoe, the width also is little bit wider in the right shoe !! As mention the size sticker inside right shoe !!!! Also the jordan sign of the RIGHT showlace is missing!!!

Not recommended to buy from this shop again

All the pictures list the height, but they don’t show that there’s a cheap, 1.25” cylindrical black base on the bottom making up around a quarter of the statue’s height. So the actual figurine and rock base pictured are only about 4.5” tall.

I took pictures with a ruler and 12 oz soda can for scale.

I ordered this as a Christmas present for my best friend's mother, who is pretty much like a second mom to me. Like me and my best friend she is a huge comic book fan as well. Ever since Marvel's Avenger's End Game came out my best friend and his mom have been collecting a lot of Marvel memorable. This was a perfect gift. Thank you for the great business.

 UPDATE 11/24/2017:
The audio bug I reported in my original review is now finally fixed. After working extensively with Razer support (who have been great) and two replaced controller it was finally determined to be a firmware bug as predicted. They issued a new firmware v1.02.00 which fixes the issue . So if you experience the audio bug I faced you should contact Razer support to get the firmware updater . I now full, 200% recommend this controller . The only reason I am not bumping my original rating from 4 stars is to recognize the existence of this initial (but resolved) issue

I'm an avid console FPS gaming enthusiast and spend a significant portion of my game time playing online competitive multiplayer games like Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1 , Overwatch, Halo 5 etc. And just like me I'm sure you will come to a point where you'll realize that the stock OEM Xbox controller doesn't really cut it. Hence I have a amassed quite the collection of 3rd party controllers including my current favourite the Razer Wildcat controller (before using the Wolverine controller that is). For this review I will compare the new Wolverine controller to the Wildcat controller, how it feels in hand while gaming and reasons why I had initially chosen the Razer Wildcat over the Xbox Elite controller ( all of which apply to the Wolverine controller as well)

WHY I CHOOSE THE RAZER CONTROLLER OVER THE XBOX ELITE CONTROLLER
When I first purchased my Wildcat I had spent an embarrassingly large amount of time researching between it and the Elite controller and in the end it came down to this :
- If you read online forums, Reddit etc you'll quickly come to realize that the Elite controller is plagued with build quality issues and cheap plastic parts that break easily and on top of that the elite controller only has a 6 month warranty. These Razer controllers come with 1 year warranty. To me the the length of warranty told me all I wanted to know about the confidence each of the manufacturer had in their product
- The second thing that really seals the deal in favor of the Razer controllers (both Wildcat & Wolverine) is MECHANICAL buttons - You see even while costing $150 the elite controller had the same rubber domed ABXY buttons as the stock Xbox or any other cheap controllers. Rubber dome buttons do not provide the right feedback while intense gameplay as they tend to bottom out / fade away and 'stick' over time . Whereas the Razer controller feature proper mechanical switch ABXY buttons that are responsive , Clicky (just like a mechanical keyboard) and feature a very short travel distance and actuation time
- Well these two reasons were more than enough for me to look away from the elite controller

DESIGN & BUILD QUALITY
- From the first moment you unbox the Wolverine controller , open its velvet lined hardshell case and hold the controller in your hand - you realize that it just oozes with quality worthy of its asking price. It is neither too heavy nor too light , the matte finish plastic construction, triggers , trigger locks all feel solid and operate smoothly without any creaks and rattles
- Unlike the Razer Wildcat controller where you have to stick the rubberized grips yourself which is hard to get right , the Wolverine controller now features a permanent rubberized dotted grip which works out much better in practice without adding too much bulk. It is very comfortable to hold/squeeze even with sweaty palms
- The trigger stops are also better built and feel sturdier than Razer Wildcat controller
- The four rear buttons on the rear of the controller ( M3 to M6) are made of plastic and are also of the mechanical switch type with very short actuation distance and clicky operation. One thing I would like to point out is that the rear triggers/buttons on the Wildcat controller are made of metal whereas they have switched to plastics for the new Wolverine controller
- Another aspect where the Razer controllers are better than the Elite controller is their built in chat & program pad. You can quickly program the 6 customizable buttons without the help of any software and quickly change assignments on the fly . It can store two profile assignments and also adjust chat and game volume
- You can swap the rubber domed metal- thumbsticks , D-pad out to match your preference whether you like the stock xbox controller feel, taller wider or dome shaped thumbsticks - there's one for every preference. While the magnets that hold the thumbsticks and D-pad is strong they can still come out if the controller falls or is kept face down . Hence i would recommend some caution there
- The reason why most of the 3rd party controllers on the market today are wired (with the sole exception of modded stock $170+ Scuff controllers) is because Xbox One uses a proprietary wireless protocol for their controllers which is probably very expensive to license, so its hard to be critical on this controller for being wired. Having said that the included 10 Ft nylon braided cable is durable and long enough for most gaming setups and can easily reach your couch

PERFORMANCE, TRIGGER LOCKS & CUSTOM BUTTONS
- Lets first talk about the trigger locks as they're one of main game changers when compared to stock controllers, as they limit the motion of the RT/LT triggers right upto their actuation point and cutting their 'dead' zone by almost 75%. If you prefer high precision or semi-automatic weapons in your FPS games, then you can get in significantly more number of shots faster than you would on a regular controller. The importance of that in a tense encounter with another player cannot be understated. Also unlike the Wildcat controller you dont have to activate a special 'Hair Trigger' mode on this controller as some games do not accurately recognize trigger locks . The Wolverine controller does that automatically the moment you engage the trigger locks. Very convenient indeed
- The positioning for the additional shoulder buttons M1 & M2 is genius if you ask me and once you get used it , you will stop using the regular shoulder buttons LB & RB . That's because when your fingers are on the LT & RT fingers are already exactly where the shoulder M1 & M2 buttons are located . That way you can operate them without having to lift your fingers off the triggers - Another advantage in multiplayer
- The four buttons at the back M3 to M6 are ideally located and easy to reach , but it does take getting some used to for incorporating into your gameplay. But the thing is once you get used to it you cant do away with it - I find it very hard going back even to my Wildcat controller now!
- By default the rear triggers M5 & M6 are configured for two modes with the left rear trigger for a mode called 'Focus' which decreases the sensitivity of the analog sticks by half as long as you keep M5 pressed (you can fine tune this in the Xbox Synapse app) . This allows you to carefully line up those headshots using sniper rifles . Pressing the right rear trigger activates the 'Agile' mode which doubles the analog stick sensitivity for faster response. Once you get the hang using these two mode - It does give you yet another very tangible advantage over your opponent
- Of Course if you dont want to use the Focus & Agile modes you can always re-assign the rear triggers M5 & M6 to any button you like. Think of of it - With the four rear buttons you could map the entire ABXY buttons to them and never have to move your fingers off the thumbsticks and the triggers ! ( as even the shoulder buttons M1 & M2 are right there)
- Now for the Chroma lighting on the controller which I first thought was mainly gimmicky as you never get to see it while you are actually gaming - But it does look cool for onlookers. What changed my view of it was a lighting mode called 'Immersive' which lights up as according to the controller's vibrations ie say when you fire a weapon it lights up or when you are running . It does look very cool- Check out the small clip i made of it in action

AN ANNOYING BUG
- My only disappointment with this controller is a firmware bug I encountered where if you use the Wolverine to turn on the Xbox it does not activate the audio on the 3.5mm jack and you have to do literally unplug the controller and plug the controller back in to get audio. Sometimes even the controller fails to turn on when you power on the Xbox
- I contacted Razer support for this and they did RMA my first controller and since they did not have one in stock in their local warehouse they sent it to me from their Hong Kong warehouse with two day international shipping ! Kudos to them for that but even my second controller has the same issue.
- I am decking one star for this bug alone. And the reason why I am not taking away more stars is because it can be fixed via a firmware update (which just happens to not be available yet) and they had the other similar issues with their Wildcat controller at launch which was fixed by a later firmware upgrade. I just hope it comes soon enough
- I have the original Xbox (not the S) and this bug happens on Xbox on both power saving and instant on modes

FINAL THOUGHTS
So there you have it the Wolverine controller is miles better than their own Wildcat controller (and by extension the Xbox Elite controller) . It is so good that I dont like using my Wildcat anymore as it does give a very tangible edge to my gameplay and has better overall ergonomics and precision. The only thing I would like to caution you about is the audio bug I faced requiring you to unplug and replug the controller every time. I will update this review once there is a firmware update available but until then you'll have to decide if its a quirk worth living with or not. And according to me - It is...See you in the battlefield !

As a true gamer, I wanted the exclusive alt suit. To get that type of game I had to pay a little more for it. The uncage version only cost 12 to 15 dollars. The game I wanted was 25 at the most not include shipping. When I ordered it I expected to get what I paid for. Once the game got here it wasn't what I paid for, and BLS mart knew exactly what they was doing. And they scammed me out. I even complained and emailed them but no respond so I knew clearly I was suckered out. But that fine because I usually don't forget n I will never order from BLS mart. If I was you I check with BLS mart before ordering anything. If anybody looking for me to tell my experience of the alt suit wolverine, I wouldn't know because BLS mart sent the wrong game and I'm complaining because they scammed me out.

Ryan Reynolds thrills as a Frankenstein guy brought back to life after he is killed for liking cool music like punk and goth. He is not a poser. Very funny movie if you like comedies and horror movies. Its like Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Encino Man.

Einer meiner liebsten Marvel Filme!.
Dr. Stephen Strange ist ein erfolgreicher und arroganter Neuro-Chirug der nach einem schweren Autounfall durch Nervenschäden in seinen Händen seinen Beruf nicht mehr ausüben kann. Verzweifelt lässt er sich immer wieder operieren, damit er sein altes Leben wieder bekommt. Als der gewünschte Erfolg ausbleibt und er von einem anderen Patienten erfährt der Querschnitzgelähmt war und trotzdem wieder in der Lage ist zu gehen, spürt er diesen auf um zu erfahren wie dies möglich ist. Dieser erzählt ihm dann von einem besonderen Ort in Nepal an welchem er angeblich geheilt wurde. Dr. Strange macht sich daraufhin auf den Weg nach Nepal in der Hoffnung auf ein weiteres Wunder. Dort trifft er dann letztendlich auf "die Älteste", die mächtige "oberste Zauberin". Nach anfänglichen Zweifeln bittet er schließlich die Älteste ihn zu unterrichten. Diese weigert sich zunächst da sie Strange für zu arrogant hält. Aber am Ende willigt sie ein und unterrichtet Strange in den mystischen Mächten. Dieser erweist sich als brillianter Schüler welcher auch gleich Gebrauch von seinen neuen Fähigkeiten machen muss da sich ein anderer früherer Lehrling der Ältesten den dunklen Mächten zugewand hat und nun mit einem verbotenen Ritual die Erde in die "Dunkle Dimension" ziehen möchte da er sich davon ewiges Leben erhofft...
Meiner Meinung nach ist dies einer der besten Marvel Filme überhaupt. Die Story ist recht originell und optisch ist dieser Film ein absolutes Meisterwerk, er bietet CGI Effekte in Vollendung. Ich denke er könnte auch Leuten gefallen die sonst mit Marvel Filmen wenig anfangen können oder die erst wenige oder gar keinen Film von Marvel kennen. Ich kann nur sagen: schaut ihn euch an!.

I have owned many pizza peels and they have always splintered, worked, and ended up breaking in half. When I ordered this I was a little skeptical because it sounded so amazing, but everything they say is true. Not only is this board beautiful but the quality is outstanding ! It is perfectly smooth with a nice beveled edge, comfortable grip, cleans nicely and works perfectly, we use it in our outdoor pizza oven and the pizzas with a little cornmeal slide right into the oven with ease, the company was a very efficient, the board arrived within days, and the owner of the company contacted me shortly after to ask if I was satisfied with the product when I said I hadn't used it yet she checked back in a week and said they were a small company and she just wanted to make sure that I was happy with my purchase. Not only am I happy with my purchase but I am also happy with this amazing small family Business and I wish them the best of luck in the future I recommend ordering from this company anytime they're great! Thank you Melisse

"There can be no victory except through God"

Kingdom of Heaven is directed by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Marton Csokas, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, Alexander Siddig, David Thewlis, Ghassan Massoud and Edward Norton. Cinematography is by John Mathieson and music scored by Harry Gregson-Williams.

Director's Cut, two words that has these days come to mean a marketing ploy to get the home movie fan to part with more cash. Except maybe when they call it something else, such as Unrated Edition or Extended Edition, the Director's Cut has rarely been more than the original theatrical version with some added bits sewed back in. Case in point Ridley Scott's own Gladiator. But Scott is a big advocate of the home formats available to us, and what he says in his introduction on these releases are always telling. Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut is one of the rare cases that deserves the label, it is the cut Scott wanted and with 45 minutes extra in the film, it's now a fully formed epic and without doubt a better film than the one the theatrical cut suggested.

Nutshell plotting finds the story set during the Crusades of the 12th century. Balian (Bloom) is a French village blacksmith who after finally meeting his father Godfrey (Neeson), sets him on a course to aid the city of Jerusalem in its defence against the Muslim leader Saladin (Massoud). Saladin is battling to reclaim the city from the Christians. It's a fictionalised account of Balian de Ibelin the man, but with the Crusades featuring so rarely in movies it's good to see one with attention to detail in relation to the events and time period.

Now this version exists there is no reason to visit the theatrical cut, for although this has one or two missteps in the narrative, big holes have been plugged and characters importantly expanded. Benefiting the most are Eva Green as Sibylla, and Bloom himself as Balian. The former now gets substance on why she transforms from a measured princess to a borderline head-case, and the latter gets a back story which helps us understand why he does what he does. Both actors performances are seen in better light as their characters become more defined. Neeson and Norton, too, also get more screen time, and that can never be a bad thing.

In this day and age the topicality of the film as regards Muslims and Christians is obviously hard to ignore, but Scott and Monahan are not in the market for political posturing. Scott had long wanted to do a film about The Crusades, to make it an historical epic adventure reflecting the period, and he has achieved that without head banging messages. In fact the culmination of the films major battle comes by way of tolerance, compassion and mutual respect, not by over the top histrionics or side picking. It's a crucial point to note that the makers have not demonized the Arab leaders, both Saladin and Nasir (Siddig) are portrayed as intelligent and cultured men of standing. Their drive and determination coming off as respectful as Balian's defence of Jerusalem is. They also provide the film with two of its best acting performances. Impressive considering the film is full of very good acting turns.

It will come as no surprise to fans of Scott's work to find that Kingdom of Heaven is tremendous on production value. Filled out with astonishing visuals and no overuse of CGI, it's arguably Scott's best production: it's certainly his most ambitious. Filmed in Spain and Morocco, the makers easily whisk us back centuries to the France and Jerusalem of the time, the ability to plant us firmly in the time frame is not to be understated. Mathieson (Gladiator) is a big part of that, his colour lensing for France (metallic cold blues) and Jerusalem (dusky yellow and brown hues) is a visual treat and integral to the feel of the story. While Gregson-Williams' score rarely gets a mention, but it's very at one with Scott's vision, a delightful mix of ethnic strains, mystical flair and medieval emphasis. Scott also ups the ante for visceral battles, the horrors of war never more vivid as they are here. Supremely constructed, the siege of Jersualem is one of the finest in cinema, the first sight of fireballs igniting the night sky bringing the hairs on the back of the neck standing to attention. It's just one of many great moments that form part of Scott's breath taking epic.

Badly treated on cinema release by the studio, who even marketed that cut badly, Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut is these days worthy of a revisit and deeper inspection. For rich rewards await the genre faithful. 9.5/10

I enjoy this show thought I must admit that at first I thought it was a goofy idea. But Pawn Stars has caught our attention and enthusiasm to the point my wife has added stopping in to see the guys to her "bucket list." The show is formulaic and simple yet as Rick says during the opening, you never know what's coming through the door. What makes it is the interaction between the four men -- Rick, Corey, the "old Man" and Chumlee -- as well as the insight provided by the pool of experts drawn in to examine weapons, art, rare books and other historic objects. Plus Rick has an excellent education and explains the history of whatever item catches his fancy. Excellent and engaging.

Elevating in their clarity, Inspiring in their intellect & passion. Unfortunately more for Russia than for Tolstoy himself and his followers her was not alive when revolution beset his motherland that he was not around to influence the much needed spiritual and human factor to a revolution dominated by the drieness and cynicism associated with the more negative elements of Bolshevism (not to take away the genius of Lenin).He may also have been able to influence his friend and fellow traveller Kropotkin into opposing the Great War, which would have given greater influence of the libertarian and democratic tendencies within the socialist/communist/anarchist camp.

After purchasing the eBook, and (unfortunately) missing the cutoff for being able to return it, if I hadn't read a review somewhere that'd mentioned there was a huge supernatural element constructing this novel (reason for wanting to return), I wouldn't have known it from the opening pages. I'm not really a fan of supernatural, so at the beginning the fact that this treaded supernatural lines came as a delightful surprise. The interview with Billy Lucas hooked me. It was chilling, suspenseful, and thought-provoking, each word causing me to wonder more and more why this seemingly perfect 14 year old murdered his family with every, rushed turn of the page. Unfortunately, even though we eventually find out that Billy wasn't "truly" in control of himself that night (enter supernatural elements), I wasn't 100% happy with the reasoning as to why Alton Turner Blackwood became a serial killer.

Koontz wrote a solid case for Blackwood's disturbingly sick nature through a slew of journal entries within the novel. I'll give him that. Very twisted, still believable stuff. But, when Koontz really turns over the angst card, throwing in the complications regarding the supernatural powers, somewhere along my reading journey, the suspension chain of believability was broken, tarnished beyond repair. I get that whilst reading we're supposed to let go of everything we know, open up our minds to ideas we never thought possible (especially in a novel such as this), but it all became way too much to take in. I think this is because (for me, at least) it didn't feel 100% supernatural to begin with. Either way, as I continued to read on, certain scenes and such continued to ring false, overdone.

Up until around the two-hundredth or so page, the pacing was all-consuming. I thought I was going to give myself a nervous breakdown due to how fast I was grinding through the novel. In classic Dean Koontz fashion, the literary master of words had me pining to find out what was going on. But, sadly (dead smack in the middle or the story, no less), the tale all but came to a complete standstill. It's as though it branched off from Calvino (which whom I must note I dug immensely--he reeked true detective), to the rest of his family members: the artsy wife, his three kids, etc. At one point I was waiting to hear about Grover, the family dog. The story and all its beautiful tension lost its way, the plot doing nothing but riddling my mind with confusion. From there on, the book never gripped me the way in which it did in the first half, never quite gave me the same deep, terrifying bone-shivers it initially did in the opening scenes.

Nonetheless, Koontz rallies toward the finish line, eventually bringing everything full circle in an overall satisfactory read. This is a book in which I believe "most" Koontz followers will enjoy. That said: someone new to him might not be as generous.Though this one wasn't a true winner for me, I'll forever remain a fan of anything in which Mr. Koontz puts out into the universe for me to enjoy.

Happy reading!

I really enjoyed "Phantoms", but "The Servants of Twilight" and "Darkfall" were rather mediocre, and quite forgettable. "Phantoms" is a well written, suspenseful story with likable characters, and it kept me guessing right through the end... and when the "villain" was finally revealed, I was thoroughly impressed!

Though this collection is a good value, I was not particularly impressed with the quality of the physical book itself. Since the publisher's goal was to cram three full-length novels into one collection, the result is a book with very small font type with a ton of text on each page. After getting accustomed to reading on my Kindle, there's no way I can go back to reading a book that's printed in this style.

This book is both a wonderful ode to pet dogs and a study of human life and relationships. Ed Grinnan is a wonderful writer (and editor) who easily moves through and among various storylines to tell an effective tale. This is a book that really speaks to dog lovers and owners, though others could appreciate the brilliant writing. Most dog owners, like myself, can really feel and recognize Mr. Grinnan's joys and heartbreaks and blessings. Be warned, this book is quite the tear-jerker. Readers who want strict sequence and direct timelines may not like the indirect journeys taken by the author. It's a little hard to follow the order of dogs owned by the Grinnans, and the back and forth timeframes involved. But the order of things and the timeline are much less important than the overall story of how our pet dogs affect our lives in ways both obvious and mysterious.

Through just one story in this book the first century philosopher Epictetus was able to school me on meeting people. It's got a story by Kahlil Gibran that I had never read before. In fact, it's got about a hundred stories of my favorite kind (you could almost call them parables).

I would have rated it for stars but the first few chapters I had trouble keeping interest or identifying with the characters. After that it was a good read.

The gimmick (Gardner, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler solving a real mystery together) is entertaining enough, and Nolan eventually builds a enough of a plot to keep most readers going, but I must say I found the book a big disappointment. Despite the little lectures on California missions, the changing editorship of Black Mask magazine, and so forth -- and the pointless cameo appearance of cardboard cutouts labeled Mae West, John Barrymore, etc -- there is no sense at all of life in the '30s. At first I thought the flatfooted style was meant to be a comment on narrator Erle Stanley Gardner's writing, but at his worst Gardner wasn't this banal, cliche-ridden and tautological (again and again, a character's speech will be tagged with a clause summarizing its contents or explaining its already-obvious intention.) But okay, we don't always look for any kind of style in a certain kind of whodunit, and Nolan does deliver a decent mystery. What I couldn't stand -- I wouldn't even have finished the book if I hadn't been stuck in a hotel room with nothing else -- was the constant stream of anachronistic language. The whole point of this entertainment is that it takes place in the '30s, but again and again, the stock phraseology comes from the '70s or later. The Bing Crosbyesque character is "laid-back", someone keeps a "low profile", a celebrity funeral is a "media event" attended by "death freaks." Once would be an irritating but forgiveable slip-up, but when it keeps happening page after page, the carelessness of it becomes downright insulting.

Awesome book! Always glad for more Living Lights Christian message early readers from the Berenstain Bears I Can Read Level 1 readers as they are almost pretty good, but this one is down right wonderful all the way through. Educational and fun touching on each of the four seasons with science and fact making it a year round read. But the rhyme and rhythm of each stanza makes this pure poetry and run to read aloud. This one is definitely a favorite for me and we'll be keeping it handy.

*Thanks to Zondervan for providing a copy for review.*

I like westerns and especially those from Zane Grey's era. I like most of the popular writers and Grey is among them. Riders of the Purple Sage is one everyone should read if he wants to get to know Zane Grey. Grey's style is somewhat slow moving and delves more into personal relationships than some of the others that move faster, but he is a master story teller and a describer of nature and beauty.

Written by the Legendary Masashi Kishimoto the creator of Naruto and illustrated by Akira Okubo brother of Atsushi Ōkubo who created Soul Eater and Fire Force. This Volume is simply breathtaking. It's here the story really starts to progress and we learn what the main plot will be. We also see a tale woven of Love both of the main character Hachimaru's Father-Son relationship but also the Romance start between him and Ann who are together as Princess to the Samurai Hachimaru. We also see not only the setup to the Tale and adventure to come with Master Daruma but the Tale of Life and Death that Masashi Kishimoto often deals with in Naruto but here he puts into the forefront and how to move foreward from such tragedy. A master piece cannot truly capture it. The experience is worth it. You might have heard this series though ended was cut short and if it's worth it to buy it. I would highly recommend you do. This is a Tale left untold by fans so a gem but one that reaches the viewer on the other side.

Even after I have been following Naruto since I was 12 (am now 23) the Zabuza & Haku chapters will always remain one of my favorites. I love these characters. They have a great back story. Particularly as it pertains to their relationship with each other. I also love Haku's jutsu. Even today she is one of the only ninjas in the series to mix wind and water Chakra types to become a ice type. I would love to know even more of her history (particularly her history as a black ops operative because she wears Anbu Hidden Mist mask). Love these chapters. FAST SHIPPING and came in great condition. Ordered together with 1-4.

Great shirt, fits pretty standard to most men’s/unisex long sleeve shirts. My only issue is that it’s that cheap starchy cotton that just doesn’t ever feel soft, and probably will only get more scratchy and stiff with time. Kinda expected more from an almost $30 shirt, but it’s still fun to wear.

Nachdem ich stark von der Deutschen Übersetzung von Naruto enttäuscht wurde, hatte ich mir die englische und französische Ausgabe zum Vergleich bestellt. Eindeutiges Ergebnis: Die Französische ist die Beste!

Mein Hauptkritikpunkt an der deutschen Ausgabe war: Es fehlen an den Rändern Teile des Bildes. Legt man die deutsche und französische Ausgabe direkt nebeneinander, sieht man auch warum: Die Abmessungen sind ziemlich exakt identisch, allerdings hat man in der deutschen Ausgabe das Bild leicht vergrößert, sodass oben, an der Seite und unten nun immer etwas fehlt, wenn die Zeichnungen ganz bis zum Rand gehen. Und das stört oft gewaltig, wenn Gesichter halb abgeschnitten werden oder die Bildkomposition komplett zerstört wird.

Die französische Ausgabe hat aber noch andere Vorteile: Zum einen kommt sie als Heft mit separaten Umschlag, ganz wie in Japan üblich. Auch wurden anscheinend das Grußwort des Autors im Klappentext mit übersetzt (hat aber auch die Englische Ausgabe). Ich spreche Französisch nicht fließend, aber mir scheint die Ausdrucksweise gewählter und stellenweise weniger vulgär, vom Inhalt her oft etwas genauer.

Die Zeichnungen sind auch besser gedruckt. Im Vergleich zur deutschen Ausgabe haben die Aquarelle mehr Kontrast, und man sieht die Nuancen zwischen feinen und stärkeren Linien besser als in der englischen Ausgabe.

Als letztes Schmankerl gibt es hinten noch eine Erklärung der japanischen Wortspiele, die sich nicht übersetzen lassen. Das hat nur die Französischen Ausgabe.

Fazit: Wer Französisch kann, sollte Naruto auf Französisch lesen. Die Ausgabe ist in allen Punkten überlegen. Ansonsten ist Englisch zweite Wahl, und Deutsch der letzte Notnagel. Leider.

Love these books, it's been 30 years since I dove into Carter Brown's world of blondes, brunettes and bullets. Reading some new or re-reading old doesn't matter. The world disappears for a few hours.

Awesome bracelet; Braided lace equates to a fat laced bracelet.

Center bead with lion's head etched in to it and is made of a metal. End pieces on laces are also made of a metal with "Rastaclat" etched in both Green and Red.

Other than Red White & Blue the Rasta color scheme is my next favorite.

I would not recommend showering with it as now it seems to loosen on my wrist rather than hold tight as to where I set the bracelet to be when put on.

Overall, I dig it!

#LMHO

This volume of Case Closed! was good but it was also very short in comparison to the other volumes I've read. It's still has some interesting cases though, and if you don't want to miss anything you definitely should pick it up for yourself.

This is book three of four in the series 'The Kershaw Sisters' These books just keep on giving and are such a pleasure to read. Anna throws in a lot of twists and turns in her books and one is never sure which way they will go. I am up to the last book at the moment, 'Our Mary Ann', and it is just as great if not better. You will not be dissappointed in any of Anna Jacobs books.

This is another amazing collection by the medical thriller master. I just can't stop reading. If you enjoy this medical mysteries, I really recommend this. All three of them will keep you hooked from beginning to end.

Thunderball was the fourth James Bond movie and continued to star Sean Connery in the lead role. The story focuses upon SPECTRE attempting to steal nuclear bombs from Britain and NATO and hold them for ransom. It was the first Bond movie to really expand upon the use of gadgets and is still great fun to watch.

Gadgets became a trademark of the James Bond films. While the previous three all had them they were not that prominent nor noteworthy beyond Bond’s Aston Martin in Goldfinger. In Thunderball he employed all kinds of technology. In the opening scene he kills a spy and escapes his henchmen by using a jet pack that lifts him off a roof and then to his Aston Martin. The car then puts up a bulletproof shield in the back and then shoots water at the attackers allowing Bond to get away. This announced that the series was going all in on the secret agent gadgets.

Thunderball also had all the other elements of the Bond series. The new SPECTRE villain was Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) who planned the theft of the nuclear devices. There were a series of beautiful Bond girls. There was Molly Peters as Patricia Fearing who worked at a health clinic Bond goes to, Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe a SPECTRE agent, Martine Beswick as Paula who had a brief role in From Russia With Love and this time played an MI6 agent in the Bahamas, and finally Claudine Auger as Domino Vitali Largo’s mistress. Bond has to deal with the SPECTRE femme fatale Volpe while seducing Domino. There’s spy work, fights, chases, explosions, sharks a deep sea battle, and all that good stuff. All together you have all the parts for another very successful James Bond movie.

I'm about half way thru this history of 17F and it has provided me with a number of facts about Mr. Fleming and his life....It is very well written and the author has put the chapters together in a logical transformation.....good for any James Bond fan.....lb

NO PUEDO OPINAR, PORQUE CANCELE ESTE PEDIDO ESTABA TARDANDO MUCHO EN LLEGAR, POR CIERTO NO ME HAN REALIZADO EL REEMBOLSO

 ho preso questa giostrina musicale un anno fa,e prima di sceglierla ne ho visionate tantissime su Amazon,ho scelto questa per la fiducia del marchio e per le multifunzionalità sacrificando un po l'estetica e i colori vivaci per quanto riguarda il mio gusto personale,nonostante questa giostrina comunque sia molto carina,e l'ho scelta per 4 cose principali che non tutte le giostrine musicali hanno,ovvero il telecomando,il proiettore di stelle, la giostrina che si può staccare e attaccare al passeggino o dove si preferisce,e anche la possibilità di sfruttarla più avanti come lampada o luce di compagnia staccando tutta la parte che si mette nella culla,la giostrina arriva a casa nella sua scatola originale ma purtroppo sfornita di batterie,necessita di 4 stilo normali e 2 stilo fini per il telecomando,il telecomando purtroppo ha solo due funzioni,cambio melodie e accensione se il pulsante verde sulla lampada che faccio vedere in video è messo in modalità ON,purtroppo non spegne la giostrina e non fa nient'altro,tutto il resto lo dovrete fare premendo i pulsanti della giostrina,ha pure un archetto per poter essere appeso. la giostrina ha due livelli di volume e sono nel tasto di accensione,il volume non è eccessivo,ha il tasto della musica e che più o meno avrà una decina di melodie e sono molto rilassanti,ha il tasto rumore bianco del vento,un po monotono e sempre uguale, il tasto rumore bianco del bosco,ma più che un bosco a me pare una porta che cigola di continuo per via di quello che dovrebbe essere il verso di un grillo e infine ha il tasto dell'accensione del proiettore con possibilità di accendere solo la luce. le stelle e le luci del proiettore sono molto deboli e poco luminose,mi aspettavo di meglio,nonostante io abbia il soffitto molto basso si intravedono appena le sagome e la luminosità delle stelle,le stelle non ruotano ma svaniscono in due fasi,si alternano le stelle grandi con quelle piccole cambiando posizione e di numero,la giostrina invece gira per i primi 5/10 minuti e poi smette di ruotare ma la musica continua ad andare per una mezzoretta e poi si spegne da sola assieme al proiettore,un difetto che ha è che la giostrina gira sempre appena si accende la musica,non si può ascoltare solamente le melodie senza la giostrina che gira ..purtroppo

pro:

✔ materiali ed estetica ottima
✔telecomando
✔giostrina staccabile
✔ molteplici melodie molto rilassanti
✔rumore bianco
✔possibilità di usare il proiettore come lampada o luce di compagnia e di sfruttarlo anche quando il bimbo cresce
✔facile da montare

contro:
✖per mettere le batterie bisogna munirsi di cacciavite e aprire tutto il pannello della lampada
✖telecomando limitato
✖proiettore con luce debole
✖rumore bianco non proprio ottimo
✖non si può ascoltare la musica senza che la giostrina giri

nel complesso considerando di averla pagata poco piu di 30 euro direi di essere abbastanza soddisfatta,ottimo rapporto qualità prezzo,metto 4 stelle per alcune cose che non vanno e che a parer mio devono essere migliorate,spero che la mia recensione vi sia stata utile 😊😊😊😊

Greer, Hilber and Walton have brought together a diverse group of authors in order to bring to life the world in which the Old Testament was composed and lived. Divided into ten sections, along with a very brief (3 pages) introduction and much longer bibliography, Scripture, ancient works and author reference (101 pages), this work is divided into three parts of the “drama” that is the Old Testament, which is then further divided into ten sections, and then further into sixty-six chapters. The first part describes the “elements” (geography, archaeology, ancient Near Eastern literature and ancient Near Eastern iconography); the second describes the “acts and scenes” (approaches to the historical contexts); and the third third, taking up almost half of the book, walks through the “themes” of the drama (Israelite religion, family networks, economic contexts and social organisation). The dramatic approach to the naming of parts and sections is cute and sets the scene, but while it doesn’t necessarily add too much, it doesn’t detract and helps the reader mentally categorise the parts.

This book is intended as a reference work, where students would be directed to read one or several chapters on a particular topic from a specialist in that area. Occasionally this means some authors will assume too much (for instance the dating of archaeological periods) while others will dumb things down too much. Also evident is a lack of communication between the authors of related chapters, where advice of caution from one author will be ignored by another who goes out on a limb. One example of this is chapter 42 (Walton: “Interactions in the Ancient Cognitive Environment”) where, of the multiple models of interaction between the ancient Near Eastern texts and biblical authors, “diffusion” is the wisest and most cautious approach. Contrast this with the following chapter (Matthew J. Lynch: “Monotheism in Ancient Israel”) where the author posits a very definite polemical relationship despite the caution suggested in the previous chapter.

There were some sections which could have been arranged differently, or parts of a chapter later in a section which would have fitted better in an earlier chapter in a separate introductory chapter. For example, the closest we have to a diagram of the “traditional four-room house” comes finally in chapter 58 (a diagram of a five-room house), even though a working knowledge of such a dwelling is assumed knowledge all the way back in chapter 9. Similarly the working definition of the ranges for the bronze and iron ages come in chapter 8 but are assumed in chapters 5–7. So too the description of the family tree of Semitic languages comes in chapter 16 but should probably have preceded chapter 12 for context.

One chapter which really needed to be in “Section V: Acts: Integrated Approaches to Broad Historical Contexts,” was inexplicably absent. The section moved dutifully through the Ancestral Period (ch 23), the Egyptian Sojourn and the Exodus (ch 24), through to the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the West and Persian-Period Yehud (ch 30) but then skips the entire Greek period, jumping straight to the Maccabean Revolt and Hasmonean Statecraft (ch 31). Although Alexander the Great and Hellenism (ch 41) does get a mention in “Section VI: Scenes: Integrated Approaches to Event-Based Historical Contexts,” the approach there is from a different perspective and is really an inexplicable absence in this otherwise comprehensive book. A discussion of the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires and their impact on the Levant is of inestimable importance and its absence is perhaps the book’s most glaring flaw.

The best chapters included those which provided clear overviews (in particular, ch’s 1, 5, 11, 19, 42, 53), while the final three chapters (“Law and Legal Systems in Ancient Israel,” “Wisdom Traditions in Ancient Israel,” “Warfare in the World of the Bible”) were perhaps the most engaging and finished the book well. These, among with multiple others, will be perfect set-reading for students as they are taught to approach the Old Testament in its world and with an increased awareness of all that is going on behind the scenes.

I purchased this power station to hide all my electronic devices' cords from view while having them centrally located, organized, and easily accessible. It does this job very well.

I especially appreciate that the devices sit on the top of the unit. This is important since the unit sits on my kitchen counter right next to a coffeepot. If the coffeepot ever overflows or leaks my devices are out of harm's way.

I also like the roomy pullout storage drawer on the front. There is plenty of room to store USB and all other device cables, extra batteries, power cubes, pencils, pens, Post-it Notes, etc.

I gave it four stars instead of five because the back power strip storage area should be larger, for easier access, and to fit larger outlet strips. I had to buy the smallest power strip I could find (Tripp Lite TLP602 Surge) in order for it to fit inside the small space provided. This meant some power cubes or device adapters won't fit where you want them to on the strip, because they are too close together, and therefore overlap, covering up outlets.

A larger power strip would solve the problem, if it would only fit in the cord storage area in the back of the unit. I'm still very happy with my purchase and recommend it to anyone looking for an attractive, yet practical way to charge and organize your devices all in one place.

This was an adorable costume for my 2.5 year old. The fabric was comfortable but was very warm. If you live in a warmer area or have a very active child he/she may not be able to wear it for long periods of time. Our little guy was sweating so much we swapped the pants out for some khaki shorts for a while. The shoe covers were huge and we had to pin them and didn’t even bother with the mittens.

My poor mare has PPID and her hair coat is like a wooly mammoth. It's really that bad. My heavy duty horse body clippers could not cut through this hair. I thought, what do I have to lose, let's buy this sheep shearer and try. Really pleasantly surprised how quickly these things cut through this thick rough hair! I rinsed the blades about every 10 minutes in blade wash and continued cutting. They get a little warm, so I did each side of her on two different days. They cut so well that you have to be extremely careful around the thin skin on the elbows and inside legs. I accidentally cut her with these and it was a pretty deep cut. Felt so bad, but was very careful after that. Use your regular horse clippers there. But these are THE BEST clippers to remove this thick hair. I bought an extra blade, but never had to use it because they are so heavy duty. You won't be disappointed with these, as long as you cut through clean hair and keep the blades clean.

My son has amassed a big collection of stuffies that has been taking over our living room. We needed a solution that would make the both of us happy and this is it! It’s so large that we fit his 20 or so stuffies and some extra throw pillows, and there’s still some room. It’s cute yet neutral enough to remain in our living room and the construction seems durable so we are giving it two thumbs up.

Both chocolate containers had been opened before arriving, with both safety seals broken, and one of the lids barely screwed on. Seller said that Customs sometimes opens the containers. Disappointed. :(

Loved it . Once i started i could not stop reading . It is well written and straight away you feel for Cheyanne and Cash and are rooting for them . I did not want the book to end and can not wait to read more from Renea Porter .