This is a good introduction to Value Investing. However, I have deducted one star in its rating mainly because the valuation chapter is weak. The author should rewrite that chapter and focus on Graham's simple formula as well as a true Discounted Cash Flow model instead of the P/E and EPS based valuation.

Furthermore, the glossary and index should also be significantly expanded, for instance, Shareholder's Equity does not appear in the glossary, nor in the index, yet it is an important concept to understand. The same goes for other important concepts. The author is also too repetitive and has a tendency to mix the explanation of different things instead of properly separating them. This is confusing sometimes.

But these things aside, and considering the general lack of outstanding texts in this field, I would still recommend this book to someone wanting to gain an understanding of what Value Investing is all about. If the author were to fix the things I mention above I would not hesitate to give the book a top rating.

As an avid reader of dozens of value investing books, from Benjamin Graham's "Security Analysis" to Marry Buffett's "Buffettology", and Phil Town's "Rule #1", I have to say that I wish I read "Getting Started in Value Investing" first. Each of the aforementioned texts where valuable, but Mizrahi's book does the best job describing value investing soup to nuts. Beginning investors who are serious about pursuing a path to financial freedom by managing your own investments and attaining above-average market returns would be well suited to begin with this book, as part of a broader self-education program. What is Buffett's secret that Mizrahi so succinctly describes? Buy long-term positions in excellent companies with durable competitive advantages that you understand WITH A MARGIN OF SAFETY. It sounds simple, and it is. But simplicity does not mean that it does not takes some hard work, and tremendous patience to succeed in value investing. Read this book, it is a great first step.

Even after reading dozen's of investing books, this is still the one I grab for the 20-minute recap before making large investment decisions.

This is probably the best book for any level of investor who in interested in learning more about value investing. I have recommended this book to a number of my friends and gave a copy to my sister in law. Mr Mizrahi writes in a easy to read style which will allow any reader to understand exactly what he is saying. One of the best ways to describe this book is as a condensed version of Graham and Dodd's "Security Analysis." After reading this book, much of what Graham and Dodd said became much clearer. This book provides the perfect blueprint for investing in stocks and making it though tough times like these. One of the best features of this book is how Mizrahi lays out exactly how to read and analyze a balance sheet. Someone need not be an accountant to be able to translate a balance sheet into a meaningful document. The chart provided in the book makes the process of reading a balance sheet even easier. By reading "Getting Started in Value Investing" along with Jim Cramer's "Sane investing in an insane world" you will receive two distinct and important views about investing. Neither of these books offer "stock tips"; rather they force an individual to do their own research and homework about the stocks they are interested in. By reading these books will become a more informed investor, and you will be able to avoid many of the pitfalls investors make.

I was almost saddened when I finally ended reading the last chapter of this work, because it was so interesting and, as one reviewer put it, "a deceptively simple book".

This is a really entertaining book that starts with demolishing some usual misconseptions about value investing and the (in)famous Efficient Market Theory. Then it explains to reader why most of the hot money in Wall Street is almost incapable to find bargain price stocks and finally Mr. Mizrahi tells reader how to find bargain priced treasures himself. The examples Mr. Mizrahi uses are so simple and novise-friendly, that you can read them without any prior knowledge about the subject and still understand them quite well.

"It is not risky to buy securities at a fraction of what they are worth.", said Warren Buffett once. This book is so valuable that it will propably sell at a fraction of what it is really worth too.

You will either get Charles Mizrahi's book in the first 10 minutes or you won't get it. This is a book for those rare stock market investors who invest based on rationality and by first figuring out what an investment is worth and then trying to buy it at a discount to its value. Although titled Getting Started in Value Investing, don't let it fool you because it is also for the very seasoned value investor. Charles is a masterful communicator sprinkling many stories and anecdotes throughout each chapter. One of the best things about this book is it is easy to read and understand, which is the best compliment an author can get, particularly when explaining complicated investment ideas. All true value investors should make this book part of their library and place it in-between Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor and Phil Fisher's Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits.
- Robert P. Miles, author, The Warren Buffett CEO

This is my first book on value investing. I am a person who is typically skeptical of fads and don't like to follow the flock. This book presents basic investment ideas that APPEAR sound and proven - to a skeptical person.

I you are looking for where to put your money and want to do your homework, this book will convince you that value investing is the way to go... and because it is not based on the hype of the moment, I like the idea.

I'm writing this as someone who is new to stocks and is interested in "value investing."
Mizrahi shares the basic concepts of value investing, how great value investors have succeeded in the past, and how individuals can make wise choices in their stock purchases.
His writing style is easy to understand and he gives great advice about how to build a "buy and hold" portfolio. He suggests holding your stock for years; not trading at every whim.
I highly recommend this book for anyone that is beginning in stocks or is interested in learning about value investing.

Most books on value investing just give qualitative information on what's important and recommend not "paying too much" for a stock. This book gives specific guidelines in both of these areas.

I bought this book at a bookstore in Tokyo. The prices of books in Japanese bookstores are very high, almost double the cost here on Amazon, but it was a very worthwhile investment and I have really enjoyed reading it. I have read it twice and have taken extensive notes from it. Its been an excellent educational tool. Of all the stock investing books I`ve read on Buffett-style investing, this one brings together very clearly the facts and ways to help one go about finding quality companies selling at the right price for long term returns. This book has been a useful aid in forming a firm critical investor focus and approach for stockpicking Buffett type stocks. Its very hands-on and combines the instruction with good examples. It was the book I`ve been waiting to read for a long time and I look forward to incorporating its teachings into my search for great companies. I would recommmend Getting Started in Value Investing as an excellent start to those new to investing and a tasteful review for those further down the road who always seek to try to emulate the success of Buffett.

Mr. Mizrahi has written an outstanding book on value investing that will stand the test of time. Unlike many books on investing this book isn't about the latest fad investment or super sexy stock. This book teaches you simple methods to evaluate a stock and determine if it is a good value. He goes over what the acronyms are, what they mean, and how to calculate them for yourself. He goes over the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement and shows you what is important and why and then walks you through an example.

In his valuations he makes several assumptions but doesn't gloss them over and expect you to take his word that they are valid. Mizrahi explains what he is doing and, more importantly, he explains why he is doing it. This is a simple way to value a stock but you are able to tweak the formulae as you see fit. For example, if you don't agree with him on using a 17x multiple when you want to figure what the stock price should be in 5 years because the specific industry usually sells at a 25 P/E, then you can use 25 if you want. He prefers a fairly conservative approach towards valuations but nothing says you must be as conservative.

This is one of the best books I have read on investing. I highly recommend it.

Charles Mizrahi's "Value Investing" is a real gem! It is clearly written, easy to understand, and offers excellent investment advice. I especially enjoyed the chapters on "Financial Statement Basics" and "Bringing the Numbers to Life." After reading this book, I obtained several company annual reports and incorporated the information contained in this book in analyzing these companies. Not only was the analysis most helpful in determining a possible value investment, it was both easy and fun to do!
I have many books about investments and financial statements, but if I could only keep one, this is definitely the book! It is excellent!!

This book was a well worth the "value". By far the best book on value investing I have read. Mr Mizrahi's explanation of value investing is on point. His explanations neither over-simplify nor over-complicate the process. A great book for beginners and a great reference for experienced value investors.

The book does get a little lengthy with stories at times but the stories always make a point. I think this will be great for the begginer but may slightly bore the more experienced investor who wants to get directly to the meat and potatoes. Mr Mizrahi has inserted quotes from best value investors in history. I found the strategic placement of these quotes in the text to further solidify the concepts taught in the book.

Mr Mizrahi, thank you for an outstanding book!

Not many seniors in highschool enjoy reading books on anything; this book is loved by any person who has read a small portion of it! In "Getting Started in Value Investing," Charles Mizrahi is able to grab the reader's undivided attention, and the reader is also able to use the book as a reference. I am head of a investment club in school, and many of us in the group have read many books on investing and the stock market. "Getting Started in Value Investing" was definitely the most popular book in the club. It teaches a person things they would not be able to learn in any other place, and that you would never think about.
The book explains that the best investor is not the one who checks his blackberry every ten minutes to see how their stock is doing! One just needs to abide by a few simple rules, and then sit back! Some of the simple rules: You must make sure there is a margin between what you buy the stock at and what the real price is. You learn that you stick with a "great company," and that management is very important to a great company. You also learn the basics of financial statements and the importantce of reading full annual reports (including the small print).
In the library of my school we carry a copy of this great book. At age 17, I can tell you personally this book is easy to read. Everyone should have this book.

"Value Investing" should be on everyone's gift list this holiday season ... it is a gift that keeps on giving. Charles Mizrahi gives a fast, easy, and simple approach to investing. The author has a conservative outlook on investing that speaks to the experienced and beginner investors.

Getting Started in Value Investing is a terrific guide for anyone studying the discipline of Value Investing. The text is also an excellent companion for experienced investors as well. The author does a excellent job explaining the Value Investing process. He presents the material in a manner that really helps the reader get in the Value Investing mindset. Regardless of investing experience and knowledge, all investors seeking better results will benefit from reading Charles Mizrahi's book.

Value Investing is one of the most written about subjects in the finance/investing space. There are dozens of books just covering methods of Warren Buffet specifically, plus dozens of other texts on the value approach. It's never difficult to find this kind of reading material, yet it can be difficult to discern the truly meaningful content from the vast pool of titles. That being said, there are good number of Value Investing books that pretty much contain the same information thereby conveying same message. At least, that is what I have encountered from reading scores of writings on this subject.

Essentially, after reading many Value Investing guides, I began to have the notion that if I've read several, I must have read them all. Yet, When I discovered Getting Started in Value Investing, I quickly recognized that it was no ordinary investing guide. The value methodology and principals remain the same, but the presentation of the material and the manner the author delivers the message is highly effective. Mr. Mizrahi has unique and wonderful writing style that is entertaining and captive, allowing the material to really "sink-in".

Getting Started in Value Investing is not just another investing book, and it's not just a beginner's manual either. It engages the reader, and the flow of information is so well organized that it reads effortlessly. Mizrahi's examples and illustrative stories train the reader's mind to think and operate in the Value Investing mental framework. Knowing the principals and methods to Value Investing is rather worthless unless they are properly practiced- when it counts- differentiating the noise from the news, when money is at stake.

I have come across little investment literature that provides level of beneficial information received from reading Mr. Mizrahi's work. It's helped shape my thinking- by adopting a stronger focus on value, which I have gained through the text's memorable examples and pep-talks.

I truly found this book to be an instrumental addition to my library. The writing and explanation are excellent, and the examples and anecdotes are highly illustrative. The book provides the necessary tools and explanation for evaluating investments. In addition, and probably most important, the book succeeds with illustrating the proper mindset and thinking needed to take action. I recommend buying a copy.

What is value investing? It's the idea of buying a part of a business through public shares at a significant discount to the true value of the business.

If you studied efficient market theory in school, you are probably laughing right now . . . for that theory teaches that no one can buy any stock at a discount to its economic value. But consider that many stocks trade as much as 25 percent above and below their average price in any given year. Surely the value of a business doesn't vary that much in 12 months.

Value investors believe that the market misprices securities about 10-15 percent of the time. If you can buy something for half its value, that should be a good deal. The challenge is to spot those mispriced situations.

Value investing has been around for a long time, but most of the earliest texts are hard for new investors to apply (such as Security Analysis by Graham and Dodd and Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor). I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mr. Mizrahi is well versed in both the original approaches to value investing and the adjustments made since then by legendary investors like Warren Buffett and Charles Munger. Mr. Mizrahi also displays a wonderful talent for making security analysis easy to understand and to apply. In the future when students of mine want to learn the basics of value investing, I will recommend this book.

I do recommend that if you decide to apply this approach that you keep in mind that almost all investors underperform the market averages over long periods of time (five years and more). You'll have to be good at value investing to make it work. If it seems like more effort than it's worth, you can now buy index funds that feature small cap, low P/E multiple stocks . . . the sort that have outperformed the overall market averages in the last several decades. Or you can invest along with value investors who run mutual funds . . . or even buy shares in Berkshire-Hathaway, which Buffett and Munger run.

Is value investing right for you? Yes, if you are determined to outperform the averages and are willing to do the necessary homework and stick with it. I believe that will be less than one percent of the people. After reading this book, you should have a better idea of whether you are a good candidate.

If you do decide you like the approach, you'll need to dig into the resources that Mr. Mizrahi cites to learn more.

Let me give you a few cautions about the book:

1. The valuation method described in Chapter 9 is much simpler than what you should actually use. It's better to use discounted cash flow valuations (which are mentioned but not described). If you want to use the test of a future P/E multiple, Mr. Mizrahi is a little generous in his approach. Many industries regularly have P/E multiples much higher and lower than the averages. Adjusting your targets for future P/E multiples to reflect where lower multiples have been the historic case is a good idea not sufficiently developed here.

2. Mr. Mizrahi is a great proponent of ROE (return on equity) as a measure of good performance. Current accounting rules and the share repurchase practices of many companies combine to make ROE not such a good measure as Mr. Mizrahi suggests. Why? Because equity is artificially low so that any earnings are seen a high return earnings.

3. Mr. Mizrahi appears to overstate the case for value investing being a way to outperform the market averages. Yes, some people do achieve that result, but there are no statistics on what percentage do and what percentage don't. I suspect that many value investors don't beat the averages over five year time periods.

4. Mr. Mizrahi explains the concept of economic moats around businesses that allow them to prosper relative to competitors. You should realize that most businesses are losing their moats pretty rapidly now as they face more global competitors than in the past. Only those who are already prospering in most of the countries in the world can be presumed to have good moats now . . . and those moats may erode in the future.

5. Mr. Mizrahi favors larger capitalization companies (over $10 billion in value) to evaluate for potential purchase. You won't find the best buys in that group. Back testing shows that small capitalization companies usually do better on average.

6. Mr. Mizrahi recommends a definition for free cash flow that overstates actual cash availability. It would be better to add the cost in increased working capital to determine actual free cash flow.

7. A few of the tables Mr. Mizrahi supplies seem to have incorrect headings. Wherever you see the same heading repeated for two columns with different numbers, assume the headings are wrong and ignore those tables.

Nice work, Mr. Mizrahi!

Charles Mizrahi's Getting Started in Value Investing is written so clearly that one might think at first reading that he is making the subject matter seem too simple. But that would be a wrong conclusion to reach. Rather, the book's strength is precisely its deceptive simplicity. The more you read it and consider what Mizrahi is saying, the more you will realize that there is a way to make money in the stock market, and he shows you the way, how to focus on value and to make sure that the stock you are buying is fairly priced, and is likely to be far more highly priced if you are just willing to wait for a number of years. And, it should be added, the book is fun to read. Mizrahi knows his subject well (it's clear he reads about companies and stocks carefully and for pleasure, and does so with a sort of passionate intensity), and he knows how to tell a story in a compelling manner.

Getting Started in Value Investing (Getting Started In.....)

I had the privilege of proofreading early drafts of this book, and I
am happy to report that Charles Mizrahi has written a great book
called Getting Started in Value Investing. It is a clear guide
written by an author with many years of experience in writing
newsletters and managing money intelligently.

This book serves as a clear guide from the basic beginning steps to
the "things to watch out for" ending summary. I recount his rational
guide path here: Chapter 1 begins with the misconceptions of Value
Investing. Chapter 2 follows with the basics of sensible value
investing. Chapter 3 warns us about Mr. Market. Chapter 4 covers
Great Companies, and explains why they may become great investments.
Then, in Chapter 5, Mizrahi explains why good managements add more
value. Chapter 6 covers the issue of competition and the importance
of enduring competitive advantages. Chapter 7 covers the Essential
Valuation Variables that matter and Chapter 8 brings these numbers to
life. Chapter 9 explains the critical issue of Price of a Stock
versus the Value of the Company. Chapter 10 examines our own
psychological biases. Then, in Chapter 11, Charles Mizrahi summarizes
the essence of the Graham-Dodd-Buffett-Munger style of equity value
investing.

While everyone may take a little different approach to measuring both
quantitative and qualitative value; in my view, each of these eleven
chapters delivers something especially valuable to the reader. They
help to get us closer to the real "intrinsic value" of a business.

When Charles first told me of his project to write an introductory
book on Value Investing for the Wiley investment series that is based
on the Warren Buffett value approach to stock investing, I challenged
him to swing for the fences and cleverly twist it into a book that
could yield enduring value like Ben Graham's classic, The Intelligent
Investor. I think that this book delivers because it gives us useful
and valuable information in each chapter. The Mizrahi kids should be
proud of what their dad has crafted. This book should be in every
library.

Since "Getting Started in Value Investing" delivers sound investing
principles, and it is written in a clear paternal style, it has a
good chance of becoming a bestseller. Charles Mizrahi clearly
explains the core of the Graham-Dodd-Buffett-Munger style of equity
value investing.


Bud Labitan