The Portable Financial Analyst: What Practioners Need to Know [Hardcover]

Mark Kritzman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994 | ISBN-10: 1557388318 | ISBN-13: 978-1557388315 | Edition: 1

The Portable Financial Analyst is a unique collection of essays that addresses the heart of every investors and analysts dilemma: how to make decisions in the face of unknown forces and how to assert some control over the outcome. Originally published in The Financial Analysts Journal, these self-contained articles address often controversial and difficult quantitative topics without the technical jargon and mathematical symbolism that often permeates other writings. With a rare degree of lucidity and impeccable logic, Mark Kritzman shows investors how to employ the tools of mathematics, statistics, and common sense when evaluating past results and projecting future performance.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

To succeed in the world of finance you must have a solid understanding of the concepts and strategies used to perform proper investment analysis. Today, financial analysts are faced with increasingly technical topics that are theoretically complicated but practically necessary. To help you overcome these obstacles, financial expert Mark Kritzman has returned with a completely updated and expanded second edition of The Portable Financial Analyst.

The Portable Financial Analyst, Second Edition is a comprehensive collection of financial insight and advice that addresses the heart of every investor’s and analyst’s dilemma: how to make decisions in the face of unknown forces and how to assert some control over the outcome. Originally covered as columns in the Financial Analysts Journal, these self-contained chapters address often controversial and difficult quantitative topics without the technical jargon and mathematical symbolism that often permeate other writings. With a high degree of lucidity and impeccable logic, Kritzman shows you how to employ the tools of mathematics, statistics, and common sense when evaluating past results and projecting future performance.

Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, this invaluable resource touches on a variety of financial topics that every financial practitioner must be familiar with, including:

• Uncertainty
• Higher moments
• Time diversification
• Hypothesis testing
• Future value and risk of loss
• Simulation
• Optimization
• Risk budgets
• Hedging
• Option valuation and replication
• And much more

Objective, practical, and essential, The Portable Financial Analyst, Second Edition covers the concepts, methodology, and strategies inherent to thorough and proper investment analysis. With this book as your guide you’ll learn how to make the right investment decisions as well as when to make them.

From the Back Cover

"Risk is an inescapable feature of investing, and risk, more than anything else, is what this fine book is all about."
–Peter L. Bernstein

Praise for this Second Edition

"For those looking for a serious introduction to the concepts and tools of quantitative financial analysis, this is a great book. The focus is economics and statistics as applied to financial markets. Though the topics are technical, the author’s wit and good sense of humor are evident throughout."
–Bob Litterman, head of the Quantitative Resources Group, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

"This book is an essential resource for the thoughtful practitioner and serious student of finance. Kritzman straightforwardly introduces the reader to tools and concepts of huge significance in finance and investment management today. Neither brain candy nor mental steroids, this book is solid intellectual protein. Buy it. Study it. Bulk up."
–Robert F. Bruner, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and Executive Director of the Batten Institute, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia

"This is a wonderful collection of wide-ranging essays on financial analysis written by a preeminent practitioner in a remarkably lucid style . . . don’t leave home without it!"
–Andrew W. Lo, Harris & Harris Group Professor, MIT Sloan School

Praise for the First Edition

"In one book, Mark Kritzman covers the key tools of modern investment practice. Clear, concise, and always to the point, the treatment is succinct but never superficial. This valuable volume should be included in the library of every serious investor."
–Dr. William F. Sharpe, Professor of Finance, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University and Nobel Prize Laureate, 1990, Economic Sciences

"Mark Kritzman makes the recondite transparent, the technical accessible, and the horrendously complex elegantly simple. Keep this book close at hand and you won’t have to figure out these difficult issues again (and again and again)."
–Jack R. Meyer, President and CEO, Harvard Management Company, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557388318
• ISBN-13: 978-1557388315
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,224,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book for those who have no background in Finance, April 10, 2000

By 

WEN-SHU LEE (Melbourne) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portable Financial Analyst: What Practioners Need to Know (Hardcover)

I am a student studing Applied Finance here. I find this book quite worth reading for the beginners in Financial study and practitioners as well. It elaborates many basic but not not well-understood concepts in Finance in a simple way. This book was actually a collection of articles of a column "What Practitioners Need to Know" on Financial Analysts Journal. It has covered many important concepts in Financial area and tried to elaborate those ideas completely yet comfortably.

As the author said, "My presumed audience was .... who dabbles in quantitative methods. I have thus made an effort to avoid unnecessary technical jargon and to substitue numerical examples for mathematical symbolism." I think the author has achieved this point. However, this book is rather "old." I look forward to see the updated edition with other uncollected new articles.

For those who want to step into the palace of Finance, this is the book you couldn't miss.