5 comments about The Davis Dynasty: Fifty Years of Successful Investing on Wall Street.

1. This is one of the better investment books on the history of post-WWII stock investing. While there are a number of absolute classic books on the 1920s and earlier periods (Lefevre's "Remininscenses of a Stock Operator", Galbraith's "The Great Crash", Brooks's "Once in Golconda", to name just a few), there aren't as many great books on recent history. This is one of them, however.
   
   The Davis family, starting with Shelby Collum, is used by the author as a vehicle to traverse the history of the stock market from WWII through the late 1990s. Followers of mutual fund investing in the past 25-30 years are probably more familiar with Shelby Davis the younger, than with his father Shelby Collum. But it was the elder Shelby that made the family fortune. His is one of the great fortunes ever created strictly through long term investment and is a story of buying extreme value and holding for very long time periods. It's also about venturing into uncharted waters -- like being one of the first to invest in Japan.
   
   This theme is carried forward to the story of his son, the well-known former portfolio manager of New York Venture Fund. Shelby the younger came of age in the go-go sixties and picked up some bad habits. The savage bear markets that followed chastened him and forced him to revert to a style of investing closer to his father's in the mid 1970s. The tensions between them created a sort of competition with the son posting a tremendous record with his mutual fund vehicle, New York Venture.
   
   The relationship between father and son would be best described as "semi-estrangement." It took Shelby's sons, Andrew and, particularly, Chris to reconcile their father and grandfather's differences. The human story is interesting, and the elder Shelby was quite a character. I found the chapter on Chris's "apprenticeship" with his grandfather fascinating -- perhaps the best part of the book. In short, Shelby the elder is getting old and wants to retire and turn his portfolio over to a younger generation for management, but because of the bad feelings he doesn't know how to approach his son. And it's clear that he greatly admires the record his son has build with NY Venture. So he talks grandson Chris Davis (now the co-manager of NY Venture and Selected American Shares) into inventorying his portfolio. Chris then brings his father into the picture and the two of them work long hours reading through the 5 decades of trades and holdings. The portfolio at that time was close to $1 billion.
   
   The story ends with the younger Shelby's semi-retirement and turning the reins over to sons Andrew and Chris, and Ken Feinberg, who continue with this style of investing. The mutual funds and separate accounts run by the Davises typically have portfolio turnover rates less than 20%, often less than 5%. This means they buy and hold, and hold, and hold. However, it's the price they pay for stocks that really juices their returns. The pigeonhole mentality at mutual fund rating agencies like Morningstar don't adequately describe Davis funds because of this. The Davises buy deep value, but after a stock recovers from whatever temporary trauma caused the bargain price, they continue to hold as long as the company meets their growth expectations. So Morningstar, for example, will call them a "blend" fund, which seems to say absolutely nothing about such a distinctive methodology as the one the Davises follow. This book is an elucidation of the emotional discipline and intellectual process behind this style of investment. Both the book and the investment style are highly recommended by this reader.



2. This book is listed as Elementary Reading for the [...] Hidden Gems Newsletter. It provides great historical reading about the Davis family. Before the reading the book I had no idea who the Davis family was. I did not even realize we have the Davis Fund as a choice in our 401k at work. The fund has proven returns and been around for years. This was a great book to read for any beginning investor.



3. This was not a bad book, but I was hoping for more info on how the Davises evaluated stocks for purchase. There is a lot of background family drama in this work which didn't really interest me, but did illustrate what kind of personalities Davis and son had. For the most part, the elder Davis bought insurance stocks and held for the long term--the best way for all of us to invest(the long term, that is. I don't know much about insurance stocks). This book wouldn't be my first choice but anyone that turned 50 grand into 900 million without ever adding additional capital is worth a look.



4. This book is about The Davis strategy - the result of five decades of trial, error, and refinement, that worked its way through father, son and grandsons, and each generation tweaked it and tuned it to fit the era. The 10 basic tenets remain the same: avoid cheap stocks; avoid expensive stocks; buy moderately priced stocks in companies that grow moderately fast; wait until the price is right; don't fight progress; invest in a theme; let your winners ride; bet on superior management; ignore the rear-view mirror; stay the course.
   
   This book is both a biography and the analytical work devoted to the stock market. If you like such a blend, I would recommend the books by Roger Lowenstein: "Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist", "When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management" and "While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis". The books by Roger Lowenstein are much better than "The Davis Dynasty" in terms of the depths of the analysis, as well as when it comes to liveliness and variety.
   
   In addition to this book, I can also recommend my favorite title on investing "The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't" by Kenneth L. Fisher.



5. this is a really good biography on someone who is relatively unknown. It weaves a biography and important investing lessons. However, if you had to choose one, i would recommend Roger Lowenstein's American Capitalist, which portrays Warren Buffet

5 comments about Marketopoly - The Definitive Guide to Beating The Real Estate Recession and Winning at The Game of Investment Real Estate.

1. Cap rates, net operating income, cash on cash, absorption, rental surveys, internal rate of return, job trends & demographics, etc. -- all important measures. However, in this book Mark simplifies WHERE YOU SHOULD START and enables you to quickly determine the "temperature" of the market before wasting unnecessary time on the other formulas.



2. In today's shifting and confusing markets, you can't walk in blind and expect to make money. This truly is the Holy Grail of investing in real estate. Concise, powerful and easy for even the novice to grasp. A must have.



3. Mark hit's it right on with MARKETOPOLY!
   Mark will help you invest in today's markets to win! Is it the right or wrong time to invest in Real Estate? Mark book will show you it is the right time in many areas. So start making money in today Real Estate Market after you read MARKETOPOLY!



4. Marketopoly is an excellent primer to real estate investing. Consider it an antidote to the ubiquitous information out there in the form of books and seminars on real estate speculation, dependant on unrealistic appreciation. Mr. Mackenzie has provided in an easy to read and understand form, the basic metrics for analyzing a piece of investment real estate. For this he should be applauded. Will this turn the masses into successful real estate investors? No, but it will give the reader a leg up on the competition. Read this if you are considering becoming a real estate investor instead of a real estate speculator.



5. MacKenzie explains concepts like inventory tracking, CAP rates, and ROI in a way that makes them accessible and memorable. I will be recommending this book to my investor clients.

5 comments about Chicks Laying Nest Eggs : How 10 Skirts Beat the Pants Off Wall Street...And How You Can Too!.

1. It sounds to me like people either loved or hated this book. I'm in the middle. The content was excellent for beginning investors. Even though the math may have been a bit elementary, sometimes a refresher is needed! Skip over the examples if you have just graduated from Harvard.
   I am going to be starting an investment club and have read a few books on it now. This one is very light-hearted, even if you don't think her humor is. It does, however, allow one to read more than one chapter without falling asleep, a problem I did have with another book.
   What is comes down to is this -- this book is full of IDEAS, a place to start. Some of us ARE middle-class stay-at-home moms and some of us aren't. It really doesn't matter either way. She is showing us what worked for her and her club. It is up to us to decide which information we would like to use and which information we could care less about.
   I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in forming an investment club, or just learning a few of the ways to go about researching, choosing and following stocks.



2. This book is written in a coffee klatch style, with great ideas and simple explanations. While there is a lot more chatting than content, it keeps the book from being dry and boring. And the content IS good, especially for those who are starting at the very beginning and need the basics explained. I recommend that you read the excerpts to see if her style is okay for you. If so then buy the book!



3. The first problem I had with this book was the incredibly condescending attitude by the writer. Just because *she* was completely clueless about their family investments doesn't mean the rest of the *housewives* in the country are. She continually talked down to her readers and spoke absolutely horribly about her children. Whether she was joking or not, I found her style extremely offensive. This breastfeeding, clothing diapering, homeschooling mother who happens to love her children didn't fit into ANY of the stupid examples she used.

   But I muddled through those first few chapters to get to the meat of the matter - The Chicks Dozen. This is the all-knowing formula that one must run each potential company through before buying the stock. The problem? It worked fine when the bulls were running full steam last summer and they went with primarily tech stocks. Now? Their portfolio is a total loser and they were hit hard. I mean HARD. I notice they don't even publish the numbers on their site any longer.

   As it is now, I don't think ANY company would fit into their standards and, in fact, they've changed strageties completely (I mean a COMPLETE reversal!) and are now going with mutual funds. There was page after page in the book BASHING mutual funds and now they've realized that putting all your eggs into single stocks in this bear market just doesn't wash.

   They may have beat the men on Wall Street for ONE YEAR, but they sure aren't clucking now. So save your money and check out their website to see their current strategies because they've changed their tune. You'll also notice that one of the members has already left.

   Didn't anyone at the publishing company *read* this book with it's hogwash advice before publishing it?




4. Like all flash-in-the-pan popular "investment books" this one had a lucky run, until....errr, uhhhh, ......the portfolio began to stink.
   
   There is an iron rule for "popular" investment books: avoid them.
   
   Instead, look at the easy-to-read books written by investment pros: John Train, Warren Buffett's annual reports (those are very inexpensive), Ben Stein, Joel Greenblatt, and Andrew Tobias.
   
   If you are a frazzled housewife who wants to have an investment club made up of folks similar to yourselves and put together a market beating portfolio this book will lead you astray. For tips you can e-mail me.
   
   Full disclosure: my wife also is a professional portfolio manager, mother of two, and is a better investment manager than me. What Professor of Finance would ever admit that? An honest one.



5. Put you money into a small company out of Chicago called CytoCore that is going to revolutionize the PAP test. Stock symbol CYOE.
   
   Huge and I mean huge market potential. Will become the "standard of care" in the cervical cancer detection industry.
   
   Get in now and watch your profits grow.

1 comments about NLP (The Pocketbook).

1. Before you dive headlong into the dizzying realms of this relatively new science or before you spend a fortune on the ever-growing multitude of books on NLP, buy this book FIRST!
   
   This book really is a GREAT introduction to NLP and because it's small with only 120 odd pages, it gets straight to the point. No waste, white-wash or waffle!!
   
   If you're new to the subject, it's perfect, you'll be very well informed in only a couple of days reading.
   
   If you're already well aquatinted with NLP, but need a summary of all the main points; for example because you're taking an exam on the subject; then again Gillian's book is just right.
   
   Either way I believe you will be very pleased at the value for money this book offers.
   
   From Gillian's own introduction:- "NLP is described as the study of human excellence & demonstrates how to communicate effectively & influence others [in business & pleasure circles].
   
   There are plenty of references throughout to guide you if you want to delve deeper into the subject.
   
   Easy to read, clearly & attractively laid out and full of positive tips to motivate you to improving your business or your life in general. It has many eye-catching pictures to illustrate points and a few humorous examples to develop ideas.

No comments about Lean for Service Organizations and Offices: A Holistic Approach for Achieving Operational Excellence and Improvements.

5 comments about Breaking Through: Building a World Class Wealth Management Business.

1. A world class primer in how to build a world class wealth management business. Written by people who have successfully built world class wealth management businesses this book provides you with thoroughly researched methods of achieving success. Rather than hype, you get a solid framework and sequence of steps for success.



2. A well delivered guide to attracting and maintaining a business relationship with the affluent. The authors provide a penetrating understanding of the wealth management process through proven research methods.
   This is a must read!



3. Successful businesses utilize research to help them build, guide and create their future. The authors provide you with the research to help you decide how to build a successful WM practice that fits your goals and well ahead of the competition. Don't wait too long to read this book your competition already has.



4. Having just read "Breaking Through" I couldn't wait to get to my computer and give my opinion of it. First, I was so pleased to see that the book itself was beautifully designed and printed. It made me want to read it, and not toss it on the floor next to my desk with the other piles of books and magazines. I put it on my coffee table. Each evening I read a few chapters, and word-for-word it held my interest. John Bowen and Patty Abrams are the masters when it comes to teaching and coaching advisors how to build a powerful business that is not only successful, but manageable, so you can actually have a life, too. The book is a virtual blueprint that you can customize to your own practice. And they show you how, step by step. I am not an advisor; I am an industry journalist. Believe me, I have seen every book on marketing, practice management, sales, motivation, wealth management, etc etc. You name it. And I also know many of the various coaching and training programs very well. In my job as journalist, author, and communicator I talk to advisors every day. John and Patty's name always comes up in glowing terms as world-class coaches. I highly recommend Breaking Through as a must-read for any advisor looking to develop a solid high net worth wealth management business.



5. I have reviewed the book and would recommend it for all financial advisors wishing to take their practices to the "Next Level". I have heard John Bowen speak and actually argued a couple of fine points with him. He won. Extremely well researched. The programs he recommends really work. If you want to excell in the Wealth Management Business, buy the book, read it, then get a copy for your staff and have them read it. Lastly, get a copy for any outside experts with whom you work. They will be amazed with the thoughtful, well researched material. The ideas work, the authors are experts, buy the book, then implement it's principles in your practice.
   
   R. Hockett " Wealth Manager" Atlanta, Georgia

5 comments about Investment Gurus: A Road Map to Wealth from the World's Best Money Managers (New York Institute of Finance).

1. A terrific book, full of conservative, sensible investment advice, on both growth and value investing on ordinary shares. The overall information provides the need for a complete review of many small investors speculative/gambling approach to investing, and replacement with a conservative yet successful trading plan.



2. Peter Tanous features interviews with 18 individuals he identifies as top, common stock investment consultants - or "gurus." His choices are based on his work as a consultant identifying investment advisers for corporations. The consultants he selected for this book represent the major stock investing approaches as growth, value or momentum investors. The interview format lets them speak for themselves. He briefly introduces the book with a primer on basic investment terms and principles, and a summary of major themes. We at getAbstract find the range of views shown very helpful, but note that the book suffers from overwriting and a lack of focus and editing. Some tightening would help highlight the main points in the long interviews. The introduction and conclusion are long and general, and a clearer, more detailed summary would be very welcome. Yet, the book offers a lot of information for the average serious investor, much of it straight from the mouths of some very important horses.



3. Most of the interviews in this book appear to have been conducted in 1996.

   I checked as many of the managers/funds as I could on Morningstar (some of managers have private equity funds, and therefore are not available on Morningstar), and it appears that most of the managers described here have underperformed the market since 1996. Some of the funds (e.g. Linder) have gone out of business or dramatically restructured due to poor performace. Since one of the major themes of the book is to pit the efficient market theory/passive manager (Fama/French/DFA) types against active managers, and the author seems to side with active managers over passive, this is very amusing. It seems that time has proven the contrary of the point the author chose to make.




4. Tanous's effort is far superior to the other collections of interviews with money managers. Most books of this sub-genre fall into two categories, depending on the author. The first type of author is usually a journalist who knows little about the disciplines of stock picking and running investment funds, and you are usually hard pressed to find any new insight in their books, because they don't know how to ask their subjects the really insightful questions. The second type, which I'll call the John Train style, has a sophisticated investor/fund consultant doing the interviews, and can often produce real insight from the interviewees. The problem with many of these books, and Train's in particular, is that the author is often not trying to interview the successful money managers. Instead, authors like Train are often trying to play gotcha! with their interviewees, subjecting them to asinine questions and frequently diverging from the topics that made you buy their book in the first place. The Money Masters by Train is so full of political tangents and Train's forcing his opinion on the likes of Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett that I've wanted to scream at him at some points.

   In contrast, Tanous knows how to ask questions that are of interest to professional and serious amateur investors, and he knows how to stay on topic. He does ask every interviewee about the efficient market hypothesis, but that's a theme of his book and can be excused. What you get from Tanous is an interviewer who knows how to ask really penetrating, really revealing questions of the world's best money managers, and the humility to realize that his readers don't want to know what he, Tanous, thinks, but what his interviewees think! What's more, he managed to get interviews with at least two money managers--Bruce Sherman of Private Capital Management and Scott Sterling Johnston of Sterling Johnston Asset Management--that have excellent track records but who speak very, very rarely to the press. There is real value to Tanous's book, and I'm a better investor for having read it. Serious investors should still read Train's books for their revealing interviews with Buffett, Templeton, Lynch and others, but in Tanous's book, you have all the strengths of the Train books without any of the that author's obvious, glaring shortcomings as a writer and interviewer.




5. provokes thinking about investment opportunities all around you

2 comments about Investing without Losing: The Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Tax Lien and Tax Deed Auctions.

1. I brought this book to a tax lien sale in Colorado and was actually able to use two strategies listed in this book! I won 6 tax liens on my FIRST auction cheaply! I'm trying to hold on to them to convert them into a tax deed so I can own 20+ acres of land with $350.00 worth of tax liens. The normal market value for 20 acres in the area is expensive. Don't even ask. According to the book, everything depends if the tax lien gets paid off or not. But I identified proprety owners that were rejecting their land and are unlikely going to claim it. Hehehe. Thanks Mr. Sausa for writing an awesome guide! Hopefully I'll be a ranch owner in a couple of years. Note: I'm buying another copy of this for a Christmas present for a fellow ranch owner who didn't know about tax liens either and paid for his land the normal way, he was wasting money down the drain.



2. This has some solid information on real estate tax lien certificates. I was particularly impressed with the tax deed information, specifically on how to flip the
   
   property on the Internet.
   
   HIGHLIGHTS:
   1. Selling properties to investors online
   2. Finding tax auction sales online
   3. Tools to use for due diligence

1 comments about Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis: Improving the image of cities, countries and tourist destinations.

1. It seems as if Avraham and Ketter succeeded in summarizing the theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of place branding into a well written, practical, and interesting to read book.
   
   As a professional in the tourism industry I found this book very helpful, both in ideas for marketing and promotion, and in better understanding the concepts of crisis management, strategic image management and place branding. The book is full of international case studies, which many I found highly relevant for my everyday practice.
   
   This was a very good reading and I strongly recommend it for those interested in place/ destination branding.

2 comments about Service Quality (Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Relevant Knowledge Series) (Relevant Knowledge).

1. It's a very interesting book, with goods points of view, and is a reference for a lot of works in service.



2. This is one of the monographs in the Relevant Knowledge Series published by the Marketing Research Institute. As Leigh M. McAlister explains in the Foreword, "Zeithaml and Parasuraman offer readers a rigorous and practical overview of service quality: how to define it, how to measure it, and how to improve customer service performance. They also discuss growing evidence of the strong links between service quality, customer loyalty, and profitability, and the still-emerging challenges of delivering quality service via the Internet." Quite true.
   
   I especially appreciate the provision of an Executive Summary, followed by the authors' Introduction. This approach enables their reader to read strategically the material which follows, guided and informed -- but not limited -- by the remarks which precede it. Of special interest to me is what Zeithaml and Parasuraman have to say about the ten "Dimensions" of customers' assessments of service quality. They range from "Tangible" (e.g. appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials" to "Understanding the Customer" (i.e. making the effort to know customers and their needs). Basic stuff. No head-snapping revelations. However, Zeithaml and Parasuraman skillfully stress and correlate key points between and among the ten "Dimensions."
   
   I was also interested in their analysis of SERVQUAL (introduced in 1988), an instrument designed by the marketing research team of Parasuraman, Leonard Berry, and Zeithaml (PB&Z). Through numerous qualitative studies, they evolved a set of five dimensions which have been consistently ranked by customers to be most important for service quality, regardless of service industry. These dimensions are defined as follows:
   
   Tangibles: appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials;
   
   Reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately;
   
   Responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service;
   
   Assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence; and
   
   Empathy: the caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers
   
   Based on the five SERVQUAL dimensions, the researchers also developed a survey instrument to measure the gap between customers' expectation for excellence and their perception of actual service delivered. The SERVQUAL instrument helps service providers understand both customer expectations and perceptions of specific services, as well as quality improvements over time. It may also help target specific service elements requiring improvement, and training opportunities for staff.
   
   Those who wish to learn more about SERVQUAL are urged to check out Raymond P. Fisk, Stephen W. Brown, and Mary Jo Bitner's "Tracking the Evolution of the Services Marketing Literature," Journal of Retailing 69 (published in 1993), pages 61-103; also Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry's Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, published by The Free Press in 1990.
   
   When conducting workshops on customer service, I always begin with this observation: "I have both bad news and good news. First the bad news: Customer service has never been worse. Now the good news: Customer service has never been worse." Those organizations which reduce (if not eliminate) the gap between their customers' expectation for excellence and their perception of actual service delivered are the only organizations which will not only survive but prosper.
   
   In this monograph, Zeithaml and Parasuraman explain with both rigor and eloquence HOW to accomplish that with cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective initiatives.