The Micro Cap Investor: Strategies for Making Big Returns in Small Companies (Wiley Trading) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Investors often refer to "the market" when speaking about stocks as a group..." (more)
Key Phrases: potential strategic acquirer, micro cap investor, micro cap sector, Michael Foods, Gehl Company, Goldman Sachs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A practical guide to profiting from stocks that fly undetected by Wall Street’s radar

It’s unlikely that an investor could gain an information advantage over the legions of professional analysts that study large companies such as Microsoft or General Electric. However, it is probable that an investor can learn a great deal about a micro cap company that would usually go unnoticed by most Wall Street analysts. The Micro Cap Investor thoroughly explains the characteristics of the micro cap sector, and shows readers how to discover and exploit the information advantage embedded in these stocks.

Richard Imperiale (Milwaukee, WI) is founder and President of the Uniplan Companies, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin—based investment advisory holding company. Uniplan specializes in providing clients with consistently superior risk-adjusted returns managing equity, REIT, and micro cap specialty portfolios.

From the Inside Flap

"Wall Street research is often hesitant to focus on small companies. This creates a situation where many small high-quality companies go largely uncovered by Wall Street firms . . ."
— From Chapter 1

Are you looking to trade a little security and stability for the opportunity to get in early on the next Microsoft? Study after study reveals that investing in micro cap stocks has generated greater long-term returns than investing in blue chips. Yet because micro caps are by nature more volatile than their blue-chip counterparts, and often trade out of the public eye on the OTC "Pink Sheets," they are shunned by investment bankers and conservative buy-and-hold investors.

All of this makes the uncharted micro cap wilderness one of the last classic profit opportunities for independent investors.

The Micro Cap Investor gives you everything you need to know to carve out sizable positions in small, yet-to-be-discovered companies, and gain a huge advantage over mainstream analysts accustomed to focusing only on the "General Electrics" of the world. Outlining a detailed investment strategy designed—and proven—to work best in turbulent markets, this results-driven book will show you how to:

• Access little-known, but valuable resources to uncover and research potential micro cap investments
• Adapt fundamental valuation techniques and financial analysis tools to see which micro caps are poised to move up
• Use micro cap stocks to provide a valuable portfolio hedge against the general trends of the market

Micro cap stocks are the classic Catch-22. Because of their small size and relative anonymity, they usually fly under the radar of investment bankers and professional traders. However, these same factors make micro caps ideal for investors looking to leverage limited investment dollars into substantial profits. Let The Micro Cap Investor show you how to exploit the information advantage embedded in micro caps, uncover stocks that stand poised to become "ten-baggers," and make micro cap investing an integral and profitable component of your overall investment strategy.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 195 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471478709
• ISBN-13: 978-0471478706
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #294,176 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Micro-cap investing is not as efficient as large-cap investing, August 12, 2009

By	Mariusz Skonieczny "Author" (ClassicValueInvestors.blogspot.com) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A lot of information in this book can be applied to companies of all sizes. What is special about micro-cap companies is that they are not followed closely by big institutions because they are simply too small. If a financial institution has a $1 billion under management, analyzing a micro-cap company would be a waste of time. These institutions need to invest in bigger companies. Because of this, small companies are not followed closely by analysts and therefore, the market is more inefficient, allowing investors to profit from mispriced securities.

The author provides different sources of information for analyzing these companies. They include: the company, competitors, customers, suppliers, trade associations, industry professionals, legal documents, and employees. Investors can use these sources and gain information advantage over other market participants. Even Warren Buffett once said that if he had less money, the universe of companies that he could invest in would be wider, meaning that it would include smaller companies. This book does a pretty good job arguing that micro-cap investing can generate above-average returns.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars this book is a waste, December 24, 2007

By	P. T. Kelly (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

if you have ANY general knowledge of investing this book will serve as a total waste of your money. covers basic textbook investing concepts that are relevant to all caps...nothing special about small caps. limited small cap specifics are self evident. case studies are nothing more than timeline summaries of readily available public information.

this book went straight to the garbage when i finished.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, November 16, 2006

By	Alexander E. Maas "Alex Maas" (San Diego) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Actually, in some ways I hate to tell others about this books, as obviously not that many people have read it. The less people who read this book, the less competition for me in the microcap arena. This is really a well-researched book. For example, it mentions that the volatility of a stock portfolio keeps dropping until microcap stocks make up almost 1/2 of it. The author also mentions that this is not possible for managers of huge funds to invest this way--but it is possible for the small investor. I think there are only a very few books on microcap investing, and only one other has relatively good reviews. This book, unlike others, is not about making it big with penny stocks--but rather about microcap investing--which by different definitions just means that the capitalization of a given firm is under a given amount. At an rate, this is a field where the small investor can make money that is not available to managers of mutual funds.