Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation

Book excerpt: With an added Appendix and 40+ page Prologue, the second edition of the 2019 Best Indie Book Award (BIBA) winner for the category of Business takes readers through the COVID-19 crisis, building on the key tenets of the first edition. Value Trap received acclaim from the prestigious Next Generation Indie Book Awards, a Finalist in the category of Business. The text was also a Blue Ink Notable Book as well as a Readers' Favorite 5 Stars, named Honorable Mention in the Non-Fiction - General genre. More detail and new commentary, the second edition of Value Trap is a must read for any serious investor. Brian Michael Nelson, CFA, delivers again.From the back cover: "Nelson's career ranges from his beginnings as an analyst at Driehaus Capital Management to his career as director of global equity and credit research at Morningstar, to the recent establishment of his own investment publishing research firm, Valuentum Securities. Here, the equity-markets veteran explores his analytical framework for evaluating stocks, cautioning against investors getting lured into "value traps," scenarios where seemingly inexpensive stocks attract bargain hunters but continue to decline. Nelson maintains that shortcomings in prevalent financial analysis and investing include misguided focus on historical data, misinterpretation of common metrics, overreliance on indexing, and myopic pursuit of dividend-paying stocks. Instead, he believes enterprise valuation, which considers cash-based sources of intrinsic value of a company, should prevail. Well-researched and organized, the book offers a compelling wealth of information and serious discussion of market theory. It will likely overwhelm all but the most seasoned investors, and cynics may see it as a device to recruit readers to the author's business. Nonetheless, it stands on its considerable merits as a well-written and cogent articulation of a distinct perspective on equity analysis." - BlueInk Review of the first edition as published in the June 2019 spread of Booklist Magazine