Name: Getting Started in Security Analysis
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Getting Started in Security Analysis covers everything you need to fully grasp the fundamentals of security analysis. It focuses on the practical mechanics of such vital topics as fundamental analysis, security valuation, portfolio management, real estate analysis, and fixed income analysis.

Intorduction:

Getting Started in Security Analysis provides the reader with a ﬁrm foothold on this important subject (although the basic concepts may prove helpful in many of life’s other exercises). Mastery of investment analysis takes much more than a cursory read through this text; it requires years of study and perhaps decades of practical experience. Our hope is to provide today’s investor—novice or seasoned—with enough understanding to simulate the workings of Wall Street analysts. An investor, after reading this manual, will have a fundamental store of ﬁnancial information; will understand the terms, pricing, and research of a ﬁnancial services provider; and will ﬁnd the daily ﬁnancial papers more interesting.

Many investors are well aware of the basics of ﬁnancial planning through exposure to myriad seminars, books, magazines, and web sites. They need the next level of information. Just think about how many of your friends understand the risk-return trade-off (more risk, more return), asset allocation (spreading assets around into many classes), and the need for long-term investing habits. But how many wish they understood how a company’s shares are valued, or how the workings of regression analysis and the typical economic releases in a given month directly affect the value of their investments? Part 1 is designed to provide this essential background.

Part 2, “Fundamental Financial Security Analysis,” sets forth the notion that the tools described in Part 1 can be of practical use only if the investor understands how a given company is valued. Thus in this part, we explain the methodology behind the valuation techniques of a company’s equity and debt securities:

With tomes of data available, how should we quantify the value of this company? Which calculations must be executed to ascertain the true value of this company?

Consequently, these valuation techniques build on the lessons of Part 1. Without a ﬁrm understanding of the tools analysts use, it is impossible to ﬁrmly grasp the true valuation process. Part 3, “Portfolio Management,” is a discussion of the investment management process—the symbiosis of the tools and valuation techniques with the ﬁnancial planning process. It includes an examination of the laws and regulations that govern this highly regulated industry. To fully grasp these legal constraints, today’s serious investor must understand and be able to use the investment management process.