When I read PHIL TOWNS RULE#1 book it amazed me how simple this whole valuation thing is. Its all about buying a good wonderful business with lots of margin of safety. Phil Town gives you nuts and bolts, how to search online, use his calculators, and arrive at the value of a company irrespective of the stock price. No other book including Warren Buffets wisecracks and Mohnish Pabrai's self indulgent " Dhando investor" gives the reader anything. These people keep things to themselves, they never give you methods whereby you can fish on your own. Here are 3 Stocks that are great businesses as per PHIL TOWN'S book and methods of valuation. Good fundamentals + Technical charts. STLD ( smaller steel co, good fundamentals) PCU ( Great valuation momemtum stock etc) AAPL ( over valued, yet with fiery momemtum and great management, deep moat etc)
BRK.A VALUATION I did a valuation on BRK.A and its an undervalued stock. There is 32% margin of safety. My valuation was .68 of the stock PRICE closing yesterday. Now that is one good investment you will say. BRK.B is similiar to it minus the voting rights etc trades around $3900. Draw your own conclusions.
Joel Greenblatt is a Jewish NewYorker, forty something, wrote a book which I read " The little book that beats the market". He is delivering 40% returns for his clients at Gotham Capital as I read. The book doesn't NOT gives you tools to value companies on your own, it leads you to his website, as if that was the whole point of writing it! The book falls short in many ways, it discusses his magic formula, which is buying businesses with good return on capital and low P/E ratios. But you will be left wondering how does this all works? How can I fish on my own? In other words, you get his fishing rod and gear and fish with him only.
[/B][/QUOTE] Pick whats good for you, leave the rest. Don't bitch and moan what you get from it, cause it will empower you where many books and authors have failed or held back real knowledge.