Finance professor George Athanassakos of the Ivey Business School has published a new book, Value Investing: From Theory to Practice, expanding on Ben Graham’s traditional approach, and providing readers with an unstructured approach to learning the valuation process. Since 2005, Athanassakos has spearheaded Ivey’s Value Investing elective course, an undertaking that allowed Western University to be the first post-secondary institution in Canada and second in the world to have developed an academic program in the subject.
While primarily written with university students in mind, both seasoned finance practitioners and aspiring individual investors can obtain new insights and perspectives.
“I wrote this book to serve as a reference. My hope is that this book will be a stepping stone to facilitate the adaption of university-level value investing courses across the globe,” said Athanassakos.
Unique to the book, readers will be able to access up-to-date web-based spreadsheets and valuation framework/models, which allow them to do real-time valuations through a link provided.
“Little did I know then that 46 years later a follow up to Security Analysis would be published as a ‘new testament’ to Ben Graham’s ‘old testament,’ with the same influence on students as Security Analysis had on me. This is the book, Value Investing: From Theory to Practice by George Athanassakos,” said Prem Watsa, MBA ’74, Chairman and CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.
Giving a fresh take on investing, Value Investing: From Theory to Practice shows the readers a process that will enable them to find the stocks worth investing in. The book is not giving the reader stock tips, but, instead, is teaching an approach to pick stocks through a step-by-step, end-to-end process. This process includes identifying possibly undervalued stocks, estimating their intrinsic value, and making a decision to buy or not.
Value Investing: From Theory to Practice is available for purchase now online: https://valueinvestingeducation.com/index.php/value-investing-from-theory-to-practice-a-guide-to-the-value-investing-process/
Commentary about Value Investing: From Theory to Practice
“The book covers value investing from alpha to omega – from pure opportunistic Ben Graham investing to quality, ‘franchise value,’ Warren Buffett investing. All questions one has about value investing are answered in the book. Being the first academic book on value investing, the book first explains the theory. In reading the theory part of the book, one learns about value investing. But one will not understand value investing until accessing the valuation model George has developed and applying it to the real-life valuations discussed in the web page to which the book links the reader.” Prem Watsa, Chairman and CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.
“Professor Athanassakos, in my opinion, is the best academic in the field of value investing. He created one of the best value investing programs of any business school in North America (and by extension in the world). The program that he developed at the Ivey Business School stands out for its keen balance of theory and practice. This book extends these core principles. I highly recommend it.” Mohnish Pabrai, Managing Partner, Pabrai Investment Funds, Irvine, CA, USA
"Whether you are aspiring to manage money professionally or searching for a professional to manage your money, reading Professor Athanassakos’ book is an essential step in your process. There is much in this book for both. Beyond laying out the philosophical framework underpinning value investing, there is a clear and thorough presentation of the practical application of the methodology. This book should rightly serve as a reference volume along with The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis as a primary source on investing. I highly recommend reading it.” William Browne, Managing Director, Tweedy, Browne Company LLC, Stamford, CT, USA
“George Athanassakos’ value investing book is the most complete and comprehensive book on value investing since Benjamin Graham’s Security Analysis. Whether you are an investor, professional teacher, or CEO, George Athanassakos’ book on value investing will bring you great insights that will help guide you in investing, in making business decisions, and in other areas throughout your life!” Arnold Van Den Berg, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Chief Investment Officer, Century Management, Austin, TX, USA
