Product Description

"The Aggressive Conservative Investor will never go out of date. Regulation, disclosure, and other things may change, but the general approach and mindset to successful investing are timeless. Read this book and you will learn the rudiments of 'safe and cheap' investing. An essential read for every amateur and professional investor."
--Stan Garstka, Deputy Dean & Professor in the Practice of Faculty & Management, Yale School of Management

"Security analysis toward both better odds and higher long-term payoff: A readable, authoritative guide."
--Professor Bill Baumol, New York University

"In reading this book, one is struck by the simplicity of the ideas and the dependence of the investor on his own understandings of reality as opposed to the myths on the street. The updated version of this 1979 classic incorporates all the modern financial engineering that has occurred as a product of the late 20th century, and the new methodologies refine your abilities to measure risk but don't change the fundamentals of value. The updated version of The Aggressive Conservative Investor is very much a value-added proposition."
--Sam Zell, Chairman, Equity Group Investment LLC

"I concur with those people who regard Marty Whitman as the 'Dean of Value Investing.' This book is a must-read for everyone interested in understanding the art of investing."
--Melvin T. Stith, Dean, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University

This no-holds-barred presentation of one of the most successful investment strategies of all time -- value investing in distressed securities/companie -- shows you how to analyze and evaluate stocks just like controlling owners. Based on the assumption that stock price rarely reflects real value, authors Whitman and Shubik use numerous case studies to present risk-minimizing methods that also provide high rewards. Still relevant today, this classic work includes a new introduction discussing the dramatic changes that have taken place in the value investing world since its first publication in 1979.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65326 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-04
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

From the Back Cover
THE AGGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE INVESTOR

"The Aggressive Conservative Investor will never go out of date. Regulation, disclosure, and other things may change, but the general approach and mindset to successful investing are timeless. Read this book and you will learn the rudiments of 'safe and cheap' investing. An essential read for every amateur and professional investor."
—Stan Garstka, Deputy Dean & Professor in the Practice of Faculty & Management, Yale School of Management

"Security analysis toward both better odds and higher long-term payoff: A readable, authoritative guide."
—Professor Bill Baumol, New York University

"In reading this book, one is struck by the simplicity of the ideas and the dependence of the investor on his own understandings of reality as opposed to the myths on the street. The updated version of this 1979 classic incorporates all the modern financial engineering that has occurred as a product of the late 20th century, and the new methodologies refine your abilities to measure risk but don't change the fundamentals of value. The updated version of The Aggressive Conservative Investor is very much a value-added proposition."
—Sam Zell, Chairman, Equity Group Investment LLC

"I concur with those people who regard Marty Whitman as the 'Dean of Value Investing.' This book is a must-read for everyone interested in understanding the art of investing."
—Melvin T. Stith, Dean, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University

About the Author
Martin J. Whitman (New York, NY) is chairman, chief executive officer, and co-chief investment officer of Third Avenue Management LLC, and also manages the Third Avenue Value Fund. Mr. Whitman is chairman and CEO of M.J. Whitman, Inc., a New York-based full-service broker-dealer and serves as CEO of Danielson Holding Corporation, a Chicago-based insurance holding and trust company.  Mr. Whitman received a bachelor of science from the School of Management and a master's degree in economics from the New School for Social Research. He is a chartered financial analyst. 

Martin Shubik (Branford, CT) is the Seymour H. Knox Professor of Mathematical Institutional Economics at Yale University. He received his B.A. and M.S. degrees in Mathematics and Political Economy from the University of Toronto, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University.

Customer Reviews

A good companion to "The Intelligent Investor"
This book was written by two (now wildly successful) fund managers. The prose and style is clearly mid-70s, but the advice is still sound.

In particular, I liked the contrarian recommendation to buy companies w/ LOW margins. That accompanied with mean reversion of sectors gives you plenty of bang for your buck.

The differentiation of economic and accounting earnings - I have yet to see this descirbed anywhere else. I also have yet to see a sell-side analyst understand this concept.

There are also many good real world examples that we find occuring again and again and again and again....this alone makes it worth the read.

That being said, getting through this was a slog. It felt too much like a dry text book. Maybe I am a victim of flashier editing that is in vouge these days....

The Financial-Integrity Approach (Safe & Cheap)
After reading this book years ago, I was interested in reading it again for the new release version. Though it is not really an updated main text version, it does have a new forward by Eugene Isenberg (current Chairman of Nabors Industries) and new introduction by the original authors of Martin Whitman and Martin Shubik. Irrespective, it was still an enlightening experience to go over the material again. Since the original printed edition, I believe Mr. Whitman's record speaks for itself, that the "safe and cheap" methods espoused in The Aggressive Conservative Investor are good foundations to a good investment education for what the authors call "the outside passive investor".

However, as some other reviewers have pointed out, this book is not your average investor book structured for easy reading with quick formulas. The book is for the more serious investor as its authors clearly state, for example, "In presenting our position, considerable space is devoted to describing the real world faced by both outsiders and insiders". Their point is that in understanding the viewpoints of both the insider whether corporate management, the banker and/or financier, the directors, the short-term trader, and the outside passive investor, will help you along your way in understanding what may be happening in the market and why because of the interested parties perspective.

Though the book is a little more rough sailing because of this background perspective, to assist, one (after reading the introduction) may want to start in Section 5 first, then go back to the beginning and dig in and it should read more like a traditional investment book. The two (2) case studies in the Appendix sum up the book with narratives of why some insiders (and outsiders) may act as they do.

As for the safe and cheap method, considerable time is spent with emphasis on the importance of the financial position of the security under consideration. This Financial-Integrity approach is detailed and viewed from all the players perspectives in the transaction of a security purchase (or seller) to emphasize the concept of the "guaranty". In addition, even though the authors do state their differences with the Graham & Dodd methods, I feel in the end they are more connected at the hip than their stated differences may imply or indicate.

All in, if you are willing to spend the time and do the work, whether reading annuals, 10-Ks, 10-Qs, then reading this book will assist you in becoming a better investor in your investing activities, but the trip is not recommend for the casual weekend reader.

Value investing produces excellent results
but today with all the new tools available to the investor there is a superior method of selecting value stocks. The method is simply use an index that is specifically built to capture the value premium. Then using this index find an Exchange Traded Fund that tracks the Index.

Enough said here is a suggestion.I recommend a little book titled How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 different stocks for $1000 - Pay no Commission This book is a must for those wanting to find out about indexing (passive investing) and why it is the superior method for the small investor (and big one too). This book is an outstanding guide to personal investing. It will be useful to all investors from novices to highly the highly experienced. This book prepares the reader to approach investing from the standpoint of the underlying science. It is the antithesis of a 'get rich quick scheme'.

All aspects of Modern Portfolio Theory and passive (index) investing are explained in a through and easily understood manner. The aspect I like most is that as well as a solid theoretical foundation the book is very practical and shows the reader how to create (and more importantly) and manage over time a successful portfolio. This is a great book- for the beginning investor, it's a great place to start and for the experienced investor there are many valuable suggestions. How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 Different Stocks-Pay no Commission