The Portable MBA in Investment (The Portable MBA Series) [Paperback]

Peter L. Bernstein (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0471106615 | ISBN-13: 978-0471106616 | Edition: 1st

The Portable MBA in Investment

Edited by Peter L. Bernstein

a state-of-the-art program in investment principles and applications from top-flight professionals

"Peter Bernstein and his Dream Team tackle the entire investment spectrum--from soup to nuts--and emerge triumphant. Must reading for all investors--even those who already have their MBAs." --Jack R. Meyer, President and CEO Harvard Management Company, Inc.

"This book provides a treasure chest for the serious student of investment." --William Reichenstein, Power Chair in Investment Management Baylor University

"This is an indispensable resource for anyone who is serious about investing. The lucid and insightful contributions by highly respected experts successfully blend theory with practice." --Claude Erb, Managing Editor First Chicago Investment Management Company

"Peter Bernstein has uniquely facilitated a revolution in investment thinking and practice over the last several decades. Students of investing everywhere are fortunate to have such a useful guide to some of the best practices in use today by the professional investment industry." --Patricia C. Dunn, Managing Director and CEO Defined Benefit Group

"This book is an excellent addition to the investment bookshelf. It's long on substance, as readers of Peter Bernstein have come to expect of his work." --Charles Froland, Managing Director Stanford Investment Management Company

Once upon a time, Wall Street lived off nice little homilies like "buy low and sell high" and "don't put all your eggs in one basket." But investors can no longer depend on such well-worn proverbs.

Today, the winners on Wall Street employ a body of theory that transforms logic, psychology, and statistical sophistication into a powerful package of systematic principles for successful investing. This body of theory is the investor's survival kit in a financial world flooded with information, novel strategies, and dazzling financial instruments.

The Portable MBA in Investment is a comprehensive guide to investing in today's world of finance, with emphasis on converting theoretical concepts into profitable applications. Edited by Peter L. Bernstein, one of the most knowledgeable and respected names in finance, The Portable MBA in Investment is ideal for serious investors, people with fiduciary responsibilities, business managers, professionals, and students pursuing investment careers.

The book brings together an all-star team of experienced investment professionals and leading academics. Their lucid and authoritative contributions explain the state-of-the-art approach to everything from setting objectives and choosing strategies to asset allocation, valuation, risk management, tax considerations, and performance measurement.

In his introduction, Peter Bernstein states, "The essence of investment theory is that being smart is not a sufficient condition for being rich. This book is about the missing ingredients." The Portable MBA in Investment enables you to experience top-level instruction on investment principles at your own pace--without the time and expense of an MBA program.

OTHER SERIES TITLES:

The New Portable MBA

The Portable MBA in Marketing

The Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting

The Portable MBA in Management

The Portable MBA Desk Reference

The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Presents cutting-edge coverage of investment principles and applications by an all-star panel of contributing professionals and academics. Designed as a do-it-yourself reference, it provides everything readers need to know without the time and expense of an MBA program. Managing taxes, assessing the portfolio's performance, and domestic and international investing are among the subjects covered.

From the Back Cover

The Portable MBA in Investment

Edited by Peter L. Bernstein

a state-of-the-art program in investment principles and applications from top-flight professionals

"Peter Bernstein and his Dream Team tackle the entire investment spectrum—from soup to nuts—and emerge triumphant. Must reading for all investors—even those who already have their MBAs." —Jack R. Meyer, President and CEO Harvard Management Company, Inc.

"This book provides a treasure chest for the serious student of investment." —William Reichenstein, Power Chair in Investment Management Baylor University

"This is an indispensable resource for anyone who is serious about investing. The lucid and insightful contributions by highly respected experts successfully blend theory with practice." —Claude Erb, Managing Editor First Chicago Investment Management Company

"Peter Bernstein has uniquely facilitated a revolution in investment thinking and practice over the last several decades. Students of investing everywhere are fortunate to have such a useful guide to some of the best practices in use today by the professional investment industry." —Patricia C. Dunn, Managing Director and CEO Defined Benefit Group

"This book is an excellent addition to the investment bookshelf. It's long on substance, as readers of Peter Bernstein have come to expect of his work." —Charles Froland, Managing Director Stanford Investment Management Company

Once upon a time, Wall Street lived off nice little homilies like "buy low and sell high" and "don't put all your eggs in one basket." But investors can no longer depend on such well-worn proverbs.

Today, the winners on Wall Street employ a body of theory that transforms logic, psychology, and statistical sophistication into a powerful package of systematic principles for successful investing. This body of theory is the investor's survival kit in a financial world flooded with information, novel strategies, and dazzling financial instruments.

The Portable MBA in Investment is a comprehensive guide to investing in today's world of finance, with emphasis on converting theoretical concepts into profitable applications. Edited by Peter L. Bernstein, one of the most knowledgeable and respected names in finance, The Portable MBA in Investment is ideal for serious investors, people with fiduciary responsibilities, business managers, professionals, and students pursuing investment careers.

The book brings together an all-star team of experienced investment professionals and leading academics. Their lucid and authoritative contributions explain the state-of-the-art approach to everything from setting objectives and choosing strategies to asset allocation, valuation, risk management, tax considerations, and performance measurement.

In his introduction, Peter Bernstein states, "The essence of investment theory is that being smart is not a sufficient condition for being rich. This book is about the missing ingredients." The Portable MBA in Investment enables you to experience top-level instruction on investment principles at your own pace—without the time and expense of an MBA program.

OTHER SERIES TITLES:

The New Portable MBA

The Portable MBA in Marketing

The Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting

The Portable MBA in Management

The Portable MBA Desk Reference

The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (October 13, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471106615
• ISBN-13: 978-0471106616
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #410,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter L. Bernstein's nine books include the worldwide bestseller Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. Bernstein is also an economic consultant and publisher of Economics and Portfolio Strategy, a semimonthly letter for institutional investors.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unnecessarily complex, despite credentials of the authors, June 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Portable MBA in Investment (The Portable MBA Series) (Paperback)

When I first found this book (from the library, fortunately), I was very eager to read it. I've done a lot of investing on my own and have always wanted to learn about more sophisticated methods. This looked like a perfect read: A compendium of original essays by distinguished academics and investors in the field. While the first few chapters made sense, I found that the book became increasingly complex. This is surprising, since I have a background in statistics, investing, and have a reasonable proficiency in mathematics. The authors rarely strayed from heavily academic prose, laden with undefined financial terms (only one chapter has a glossary). The book doesn't flow at all -- it doesn't progress from simple to advanced topics. I would have rather read a book by one author.

That doesn't make this a bad book. I imagine that these authors have made some profound insights in this tome, but my definition of a good book isn't one that has genius locked up behind dense language. Until the Portable MBA series comes out with a primer, I'll be searching for books that provide richer and more thorough explanations of their subjects.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good survey and conceptual introduction, February 9, 2006

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Portable MBA in Investment (The Portable MBA Series) (Paperback)

As an undergraduate, I studied political science; as a graduate student, I studied history (among other things) - however, few if any of my classes ever dealt with the actual mechanics of business, despite dealing with business in a more general sense (as it would fit in the context of history and politics). I decided that it was important to learn some of the basic concepts of business administration, and the Portable MBA series by John Wiley & Sons publishers fit the bill.

This book on investment covers topics such as investment strategy, setting objectives, valuation, risk, evaluating performance, corporate governance, and the general process of investing. The introduction looks at many of the myths of investing - author Peter Bernstein highlights many of the clichés of Wall Street, such as 'nothing ventured, nothing gained', 'buy low, sell high', and 'don't put all your eggs in one basket', in order to look at the truth or false aspects behind each one. He also states, 'If you're so smart, how come you're not rich? The answer is disarmingly simple: The essence of investment theory is that being smart is not a sufficient condition for being rich.'

This book fills in some of the gaps, but it is not a get-rich-quick guide by any means. It presents investing as an ongoing process - investment is dynamic, and pulls in many different strands and elements; investment is not 'collecting things' like stock and bonds, and the authors work to minimize the importance of artificial barriers such as foreign vs. domestic investing, which in a global economy means less than it used to.

The authors who contributed to this volume have both academic and professional experience, and tend to do a good job at explaining things in terms that the non-professional can understanding. Anyone with a basic undergraduate background should find this volume accessible. Because investing deals with numbers, there is a fair amount of math in some of the sections. An understanding of graphs, charts, and simple equations will be useful.

This is not really a how-to guide for investing; for one thing, such guides generally need to be updated more frequently. However, as a guide to general understanding of the system of investment and finance in the modern Western economic system, this is a good survey and reference.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid information, January 14, 2007

By 

B. Cole (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portable MBA in Investment (The Portable MBA Series) (Paperback)

Although the book was edited in 1995, many of the topics are very relevant to today's investor.

Managing Risk, valuation, investment strategy are among the pertinent topics that you can learn alot from.

It is however, complex and you do need to understand the basics of economics and finance to fully take advantage of the concepts and topics discussed.