Fundamental Analysis For Dummies is one of the most approachable texts to tackle this somewhat complex topic. Rather than bog you down with the nittygritty details that academics pull their hair over, I’ve attempted to lay out all the main topics and techniques you’ll need to apply fundamental analysis to a variety of business tasks. And while fundamental analysis is useful for anyone with an interest in business, I appreciate the fact you are likely hoping to make some money from fundamental analysis. And for that reason, the book is largely targeted toward investors who are either hoping to use fundamental analysis to manage their portfolios or to enhance their current system of selecting stocks. Fundamental Analysis For Dummies gives you all the tools you need to access fundamental data, process them, and make decisions. The book, however, stops short at showing you how to actually buy or sell stocks by choosing a broker and entering orders.
Introduction:
The book is divided into five parts, and the following sections give you a brief description of what you can find within each part.
Part I: What Fundamental Analysis Is and Why You Should Use It: If you’ve heard investors talk about fundamental analysis, but were never quite sure what it was, this part is for you. You’ll discover not only what fundamental analysis is, but also why it’s so powerful. You’ll even find out how fundamental analysis might help boost your investment success even if you have other methods of buying and selling stocks. After reading the chapters in this part, you should have a good idea of what’s entailed in fundamental analysis and how it can benefit you.
Part II: How to Perform Fundamental Analysis: Here’s where we roll up our sleeves and start getting into specifics. Fundamental analysis starts with the fundamental data companies provide about themselves. You’ll uncover what kinds of data companies generate and provide to the public, as well as what the numbers mean. And rather than setting you on a wild goose chase to find the data yourself, I give you very specific instructions on the best ways to retrieve all the fundamental data you’ll need. In this part, too, you’ll get an understanding of how to start not just reading fundamental data, but digging in and gleaning insights from them.
Part III: Making Money from Fundamental Analysis: Look. I’m not going to flatter myself and believe you’re reading this book because you want to read all my clever analogies. You’re probably interested in fundamental analysis because you want to make money or at least get a better understanding on how to gauge the health and success of companies. Investors who use fundamental analysis to get a solid understanding of businesses and their values get a huge advantage over those who blindly chase stocks. In this part, you’ll get exposed to some of the more advanced techniques fundamental analysts use to get insights about companies that aren’t apparent to some investors.
Part IV: Getting Advanced with Fundamental Analysis: The chapters in this part take fundamental analysis even further, highlighting some of the more thorough techniques available. You’ll find how to analyze an industry, the broad economy, and even how to marry fundamental analysis with other methods of evaluating investments.
Part V: The Part of Tens: The tens chapters break down concepts in a top-ten list structure. You can discover what financial secrets fundamental analysis allows you to uncover (Chapter 20), you can zero in on the things you should look at when analyzing a company (Chapter 21), and you can find out once and for all what fundamental analysis can’t do (Chapter 22).
Contents:
- Understanding Fundamental Analysis
- Getting up to Speed with Fundamental Analysis
- Gaining an Upper Hand on Wall Street: Why Fundamental Analysis Gives Investors an Edge
- Getting Your Hands on Fundamental Data
- Analyzing a Company’s Profi tability Using the Income Statement
- Measuring A Company’s Staying Power With the Balance Sheet
- Tracking Cash with the Statement of Cash Flows
- Using Financial Ratios to Pinpoint Investments
- Mining the Proxy Statement for Investment Clues
- Looking for Fundamental Reasons to Buy or Sell
- Finding a Right Price for a Stock Using Discounted Cash Flow
- Using the Annual Report (10-K) to See What a Company Is Worth
- Analyzing a Company’s Public Comments and Statements
- Gleaning from the Fundamental Analysis Done by Others
- Performing “Top Down” Fundamental Analysis
- Digging into an Industry’s Fundamentals
- Pinpointing Trends Using Fundamental Analysis
- Avoiding Investment Blow-Ups with Fundamental Analysis
- Marrying Fundamental Analysis with Technical Analysis
- Ten Examples of Fundamental Analysis Unearthing Financial Secrets
- Ten Things to Look at When Analyzing a Company
- Ten Things Fundamental Analysis Can’t