Customer Reviews

The Wall Street MBA: Your Personal Crash Course in Corporate Finance

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Chapter 1 of this book is called Accounting Basics. It starts out:

Q: What's the definition of an accountant?

A: Someone who solves a problem you didn't know you had in a way you don't understand.

That sort of tells you the tone of the book.

From then on Chapter 1 is indeed on accounting. But he tries to put in enough humor to enable you to keep your eyes open. He reports on enough history (mostly of frauds), and enough of the real life options in accounting (what the tax man wants vs. what the SEC wants) to give you a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of our system.

After about a hundred pages on accounting, there's about 80 pages on Finance - no they are not the same thing. Here's a description of risk, expected rate of return, and some delightful stories of corporations acting badly.

Then, something I've never seen before he puts up a dummy set of financial statements and goes through an analysis showing how to evaluate the company.

All in all, an introductory book that is very well written, easy to understand and covers the basics.

This book is an excellent resource for anyone wanting an intelligent but very readable (even entertaining, at times) presentation of finance principles from the simple to the complex. I am a corporate attorney for a Fortune 100 company, and I've already recommended this useful tool to a number of my colleagues.

I liked the style of the author which is very down to earth. He discusses a lot of topics related to the Corporate Finances subject in a very practical and informal way. Even he tells a little about the reality of the "street knowledge" and "street disasters" of the past which I appreciate. Most of the time other books only answer the "what" question but do not answer the "why" question. The author goes into that detail which is critical to learn to make decisions in the real world. I found excellent information nuggets which I would never find explicitly in a typical textbook. I bought it and I will keep it, just in case the "theoretical" monster creeps in and clouds my vision. Welcome to the real world!!!!

After spending nearly $80k on one of the most expensive MBAs money can buy, I spent $12 to buy this book as a refresher: kind-of wish I had done it the other way around.

If you have some background in Finance & Accounting:
Advani is intellectual, engaging and a genuinely gifted writer. I've read many books on business topics, but this is the only one I've read twice. And not just twice, I'm actually on my fourth read. It is absolutely the best book on the topic, and as a refresher, there is no equal.

If you want an introduction to the field:
Background is not necessary to enjoy this book and learn a lot. Just take it slow and digest the topics. If you get lost at any point in the read, search the topic on youtube for specific tutorials on any of the topics (not by Advani, but there are lots of helpful tutorials to explain difficult topics). If you don't like this book, you won't want to buy any others about finance.

My friend who works for Booz&Co as a consultant read the first 10 pages of this book and immediately went out and bought it. Moral: even if finance isn't your field, this is a must read.

Somehow the author of this book talks about Corporate Finance in a way that even someone like me can understand, and even enjoy! While reading this book, I found myself smiling alot, and even laughing out loud at times. This guy is one gifted writer.

I am a law student (soon to graduate) and I found this book a perfect intro for a someone considering a career in corporate law. And lately with the economy collapsing as it is, more and more everyday people are realizing that they can no longer hide their heads in the sand and ignore corporate finance.

I chose law school over business school, and before that I chose Poli-Sci over Business as a college major, because I found Accounting to be a complete and utter snooze-fest. But there is no snoozing while reading this book. The author is well aware that accounting as we know it is a snooze-fest, and he does everything in his power to make it interesting. All of the concepts are broken down into simple terms, and there are great anecdotes in the beginning of each chapter and throughout.

I have recommended this book to many friends and will continue to do so.

if only if delivered, but this goes into lots of background info that just doesn't apply in today's modern economy.
You'll get some gems, not much, mostly outdated.

This is a superbly well-written and easy to understand book.

I'm a physician and found this book to be helpful as I approach personal investing and prepare to buy-in to a private practice.

A good book that gives you a no nonsense A-1 approach to understanding corporate finance - without having to sit through a long boring class or read a 1000 page textbook. Throws in a good sense of humor, too. A few things could have been explained a bit more clearly, but definitely something you could plow through in a short amount of time and gain a good amount of knowledge.

I ought this book hoping for just a tincy weency amount of enlightenment regarding finance. What I recieved was nothing short of a spectacular failure. I can honestly say that there is not even a remote possibility that you will learn anything from this 'novel' save the knowledge that there are some true nincompoops in this world.