The 5 Minute Investor: When You Don't Want to Spend the Time, but Want the Results

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Overview

This book gives any investor the ability to protect him-or herself in this uncertain environment by using financial statements as a weapon. Becoming a "financial detective" doesn't require any understanding of accounting, mastery of obscure language, or the ability to read the fine print without a microscope.

In just five minutes, you can learn:

  • How to spot the tricks modern companies use to boost revenue ...
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More About This Book

Overview

This book gives any investor the ability to protect him-or herself in this uncertain environment by using financial statements as a weapon. Becoming a "financial detective" doesn't require any understanding of accounting, mastery of obscure language, or the ability to read the fine print without a microscope.

In just five minutes, you can learn:

  • How to spot the tricks modern companies use to boost revenue totals, artificially reporting top-line growth.
  • Where to find all the places companies put acquisition gains and losses, either hiding bad investments or bolstering operating results with one-time items.
  • How to compare the income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet to judge the quality and predictability of earnings.
  • What "pro forma results," "EBITDA" and "goodwill" are, and what they can reveal...or hide from you.
  • How to tell when even an "honest" company is feeding you information that's not entirely accurate or forthcoming.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781564146274
  • Publisher: Career Press, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 9/1/2002
  • Pages: 256
  • Product dimensions: 6.38 (w) x 8.24 (h) x 0.52 (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: Money, Brains, and Enron 11
Part I. Gimme 5 (Minutes) 17
Chapter 1 5 Trillion in the Hole: Why Investors Go Bad 19
Chapter 2 Trust a Kennedy: How We Got This System 25
Chapter 3 Golden Rules 31
Chapter 4 5 Minutes in the Life of a Company: IBM's 2000 Annual Report 38
Chapter 5 Another 5 Minutes With IBM: IBM's 2001 Annual Report 46
Part II. The Financial Statement in 5 Minutes 53
Chapter 6 The Income Statement in 5 Minutes 55
Chapter 7 The Balance Sheet in 5 Minutes 63
Chapter 8 The Cash Flow Statement in 5 Minutes 70
Chapter 9 The Management Discussion and the Footnotes in 5 Minutes 76
Part III. The Income Statement 83
Chapter 10 Revenue: It's Accrual, Cruel World 85
Chapter 11 Revenue Recognition: Lucent 91
Chapter 12 Revenue Recognition: Sunbeam 97
Chapter 13 Revenue Recognition: MicroStrategy 104
Chapter 14 Beat the Check: Methods of Reducing Recognition of Costs and Expenses 111
Chapter 15 The Urge to Merge: Deal-Making and the Financial Statement 116
Chapter 16 "You've Got Expenses!": AOL and Deferred Marketing Expenses 122
Chapter 17 Waste Management: Dirty Deeds Done for $1.5 Billion 127
Chapter 18 Restructuring Charges: The Big Bath That Gets You Dirty 135
Chapter 19 Deconstructing Restructuring: Sunbeam and Tyco International 142
Chapter 20 Goodwill Haunting: Writing Down the Value of Merger Assets 150
Chapter 21 Pro Forma Results: Friend and Foe 156
Chapter 22 Accounting for Stock Options 162
Part IV. The Balance Sheet...and Beyond 167
Chapter 23 Accounts Receivable and the Oxford Incident 169
Chapter 24 Inventory 175
Chapter 25 The Four Horsemen of the Off-Balance-Sheet Apocalypse 180
Chapter 26 Special Purpose Entities 185
Chapter 27 Off-Balance-Sheet Liabilities: Synthetic Leases and Dollar General 192
Chapter 28 Pensions 197
Chapter 29 Enron in 5 Minutes 203
Chapter 30 Cash Flow 208
Part V. One More 5 Minute Shot 213
Chapter 31 5 Minutes With AOL Time Warner (Okay, Maybe 10) 215
Conclusion: Fear of Financial Statements 229
Appendix Sources For Further Reading 231
Glossary 235
Index 249
About the author 256
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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted September 6, 2002

    I was blown away by this book

    Investing in five minutes? I had to at least glance through it to see what it was about. This book explains how to read financial reports of public companies. Not just with technical language and accounting terms but how I could quickly (that's the five minute part) understand the most important parts. There are great examples with Enron, Lucent, General Electric, and other companies. The last chapter goes step by step through AOL Time Warners report. Anyone who invests should do the kinds of things suggested in this book.

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