Fire Your Stock Analyst!: Analyzing Stocks On Your Own (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Harry Domash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0137010230 | ISBN-13: 978-0137010233 | Edition: 2

The #1 Guide to Do-It-Yourself Stock Analysis– Now Fully Updated with Powerful New Shortcuts!

 

“Harry’s book is among my most recommended readings because it provides a step-by-step process that enables any investor to analyze potential investment opportunities and ultimately become a much better investor.”

– Charles E. Kirk, The Kirk Report

 

“This is a thoughtful book that will stir the imagination and whet the appetite of anyone considering investing in stocks. It will serve as a foundation for lifelong education in how to improve your wealth.”

– Victor Niederhoffer, Chief Speculator, Manchester Investments, and author of the best-selling Education of a Speculator

 

“This book is sensible, balances risks with rewards, has a lot of real-world practical examples carefully worked out, and a lot of tangible parameters. This is the book I wish I had time to write.”

– David Edwards, President, Heron Capital Management, Inc.

 

“Fire Your Stock Analyst! grabbed my attention early and held it to the very end. This is a good book if you are interested in being your own stock guru or just getting started in common stock investment analysis.”

– Nicholas D. Gerber, Portfolio Manager, Ameristock Funds

 

“A refreshing antidote to run-of-the-mill investing ‘how-tos.’ The net result is an insightful and useful treatise on investing that works for both growth and value plays.”

– Charles Mulford, Invesco Chair and Professor of Accounting, Georgia Institute of Technology, and coauthor of The Financial Numbers Game: Detecting Creative Accounting Practices

 

“Fire Your Stock Analyst! offers honest and up-to-the minute advice and guidance on the investment-research process. Domash offers up a great combination of textbook knowledge backed by real-world examples.”

– Richard H. Driehaus, Driehaus Capital Management, Inc.

 

“Fire Your Stock Analyst! provides well-thought-out, sensible, step-by-step strategies for analyzing stocks, including when to sell. These analytical methods, used by pros though rarely explained to individual investors, will help you improve your results in the market right away.”

– Jon D. Markman, Senior Investment Strategist and Portfolio Manager, Pinnacle Investment Advisors

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Harry Domash is best known for his investing tutorial columns that have appeared regularly in print publications such as Business 2.0 Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and other newspapers, and on numerous Web sites including MSN Money and Morningstar.

He publishes DividendDetective.com, a site specializing in high-dividend investing, and WinningInvesting.com, a free site featuring “how-to” investing tutorials and other resources. Domash conducts fundamental analysis workshops and is a frequent speaker at Money Show investing seminars in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and at the American Association of Individual Investors’ meetings. His books include The Everything Online Investing Book: How to Use the Internet to Analyze Stocks and Mutual Funds.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: FT Press; 2 edition (November 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137010230
• ISBN-13: 978-0137010233
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I teach from this book November 14, 2011

By Cem Kaner, J.D, Ph.D.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I teach a software engineering course in Quantitative Investment Modeling. My main course texts are Kirkpatrick & Dahlquist's Technical Analysis and Domash's Fire Your Stock Analyst. I also rely on Damodaran's Investment Fables, Hirsh & Hirsch's Stock Trader's Almanac, Tracy's How to Read a Financial Report, Shadish, Cook & Campbell's Experimental & Quasi-Experimental Designs, and Pardo's Evaluation & Optimization of Trading Strategies. My typical students are graduate students or seniors in software engineering, computer science, business, or psychology. Some of them have trading experience, most have programming experience, all of them are interested in applying research methods to trading models. We do a lot of data mining in the course (it IS a software engineering course), we use a lot of tools, but we also look carefully at the characteristics of individual stocks. My bias as a reasonably successful investor is that technical analysis helps me identify interesting stocks and fundamental analysis helps me decide (from that pool) which ones to actually invest in or trade. Even in fast-turnaround trades, I won't buy (or sell a put on) a stock if I am not willing to keep it for a while if the trade goes against me. I convey that bias to my students and several (definitely not all) consider it carefully in their analyses.

Domash provides an approachable, sensible introduction to fundamental analysis that doesn't oversimplify the problems. I like that he points to sources on the web and makes clear enough what he is looking for that if one source goes away, students can find an alternative. The value of the book is not in these sources, but in what he does with them. Domash's analyses are not always straightforward. It is sometimes very difficult to estimate some parameters because of conflicting or missing information about a particular stock -- hmmm, maybe those are red flags. Domash's analyses don't always lead to converging results--one parameter might point toward a buy, another toward a sell -- hmmm, welcome to the real world of investing. If you could really just do a few calculations and get the "right" answer, everyone would be rich (or really, everyone would do the calculations and they wouldn't be effective for achieving high returns any more). Domash is maybe a little too directive sometimes. Why is 30% a magic number? But once you apply his analysis to real stocks, it becomes obvious that these specific numbers are just heuristics, and just intended as heuristics.

When I first read this book, I wish I had read it when I first started analyzing stocks. It summarized many lessons that I learned the hard way. As a teacher, I find that it helps me organize the learning of my students (the ones who come to me with little or no background in the market) and get to the interesting questions relatively quickly. It is not the ultimate book in valuation, but it is a darned good starting point.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Investment Book for people who want to analyze companies before buying November 18, 2010

By Jeremiah Headrick

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have read many books from Rule #1 to the Intelligent Investor. This book i would says is somewhere in the middle of that range for content. It tops all investment books I have read so far for its structure and its ability to be comprehensive to all levels of readers.

For those who have read Rule #1 and the Intelligent Investor the above statement will make sense.

For those who have not: Rule #1 is very basic and does not explain why you are looking at certain numbers from a companies financial statements or how some useful ratio is calculated. It just states what you want to see in a small list of variables that affect a companies stock price in the market. The Intelligent Investor on the other hand is considered a must read for many professional stock analyst/traders. It gives examples and great detail on how investments (stocks, bonds, treasury notes, etc...) work in relation to their fundamentals. Even that book requires good back ground in knowing fundamental analysis and I find modern examples easier to follow.

Fire Your Stock Analyst in comparison gives two different strategies (Value and Growth). Within these strategies the author has broken down from start to finish how an at home investor can screen for companies that meet those definitions. He also tells why each of his criteria are used and suggests others. He then gives a analytical approach to researching the companies selected based on their business plan, financial statements, and price action. He uses examples from 2009 period so you can follow through with what the authur was expecting to happen based on his analysis with actuals.

This book in my opinion is the best book for someone who is not a professional but wants to begin making a systematic way of reviewing companies to invest in.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, concise explanations with actionable recommendations September 12, 2010

By Robert G. Forsythe

Format:Paperback

This is a thoroughly refreshing book that offers clear understanding of fundamaental analysis. As with another reviewer, I am primarily focused on the technical side however this book opened a new door for me. The best thing is that he explains how to get information (provided free on websites) and do your own analysis. It's nice to see a comprehensive book that doesn't try to sell you something along the way (recommendations, data services, etc.)