The Smart Money Method
How to pick stocks like a hedge fund pro
By Stephen Clapham
Jacket text
In The Smart Money Method, the stock-picking techniques used by top industry professionals are laid bare for investors. This is the inside track on how top hedge funds pick stocks and build portfolios to make outsize returns.
Stephen Clapham is a retired hedge fund partner who now trains stock analysts at some of the world’s largest and most successful institutional investors. He explains step-by-step his research process for picking stocks and testing their market-beating potential.
His methodology provides the tools and techniques to research new stock ideas, as well as maintain and eventually sell an investment.
From testing your thesis and making investment decisions, to managing your portfolio and deciding when to buy and sell, The Smart Money Method covers everything you need to know to avoid common pitfalls and invest with confidence.
Unique insight is presented in several specific areas, including how to:
• Find stock ideas
• Assess the quality of any business
• Judge management’s ability
• Identify shady accounting and avoid dying companies
• Value any business to find bargain shares
• Navigate the consequences of COVID-19
And throughout, there are real-life investing examples and war stories from a 25-year career in stock markets.
The message is clear – you can beat the market. To do so, you need to learn and apply the insider secrets contained within this book.
About the author
Stephen (Steve) Clapham is the founder of Behind the Balance Sheet, a leading investment research and investor training consultancy. He spent 20 years as an equity analyst at different investment banks, covering various sectors, and was consistently rated in the top 10 in his sector. He moved to the buy-side in 2005 and was a partner and head of research at two multi-billion dollar hedge funds.
Steve trained as an accountant and lives in London. He is regularly featured in the press, including the Financial Times, Sunday Times and City AM as well as on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and Real Vision, talking about accounting issues at quoted companies.
Reviews
Stephen has done a great job of writing a book that provides the reader with a repeatable framework in which to evaluate investment ideas. He does this without jargon and in an easy to read and enjoyable format. This is a great book for both the beginning investor as well as the investment professional looking to improve their investment skills.
An extremely good read for anyone wanting to master the art of stock picking. The author has had an uncanny knack of spotting winners and losers throughout his long career.
A book crammed with a lifetime’s professional experience with practical advice you won’t find elsewhere. If you are picking stocks and you want to save time and money the best place to start is by buying this book.
Crisp and incisive. A must-read for anyone interested in picking stocks and understanding markets.
The Smart Money Method provides a treasure trove of ideas and insights for serious investors. Processes that have been honed by author Stephen Clapham over a 30-year career as a top equity analyst provide valuable lessons into where investors can most profitably channel their research efforts, the most effective methods to use, and the many nuances that need consideration. Peppered with wry anecdotes and some candid views on the industry, Mr Clapham’s book also provides an illuminating gaze into the City and hedge funds.
The Smart Money Method’s stated aim is to make its readers better at investing. While the book is light on the kind of how-to instructions that may serve a beginner, where it scores is in the abundance and richness of good ideas in its pages. So, buy it, read it and become a better investor.
Media coverage
From London South East:
There’s also quite a famous author with an Amazon number one best seller. And that book I’ve got here is The Smart Money Method: How to Pick Stocks, like a Hedge Fund Pro. So we’re going to talk a bit about Steve’s book throughout this interview.
From Investors Chronicle:
Steve Clapham highlights three key issues he believes are worth paying attention to in the year ahead
From Perlego:
The book isn’t really about anything other than my investing philosophy. Basically, what we’ve done in the book is set up the framework that I’ve developed over decades as an investment analyst. I describe the process from the time that I find an idea in the stock market that looks interesting. I then go through… Read more »
From This is Money:
For anyone who wants to understand the work the process that goes in to analysing a company this book is invaluable.
From MoneyWeek Podcast:
John Stepek talks to Steve Clapham, investor, analyst and author of The Smart Money Method, about the dangers in picking individual stocks and why you need to know what you’re doing; plus, the shift from growth to value; and why the next ten years will be very different from the last.
From Opto:
His extensive experience has made him a highly sought-after hedge-fund expert, and his recently published book, The Smart Money Method: How To Pick Stocks Like A Hedge Fund Pro, gives readers a guide to understanding how smart money invests.
From Stockopedia:
Also, Stephen Clapham continues to impress, with interesting perspectives. I must read his new book, The Smart Money Method.
From Master Investor:
The Smart Money Method provides just what you want from a stock picking investment book. The core text provides a clear framework for finding your own investment ideas, interspersed by stories of Clapham’s time working in the investment industry which provide further insights into how professional money managers go about their business. The book is… Read more »
From Opto:
His extensive experience in the area has made him a highly sought-after expert on the subject and his recently published book The Smart Money Method provides readers with a useful guide to understanding how smart money invests.
Contents
1: What Makes a Good Investment?
2: Finding Ideas
3: Testing the Hypothesis
4: Understanding the Industry
5: Quality
6: Analysis of Company Quality 7: Management
8: Company Financials
9: Valuation
10: Communicating the Idea
11: Maintaining the Portfolio
12: Macro-Economic Analysis 13: Looking Forward
14: COVID-19 Postscript
| Published: | 24/11/2020 |
|---|---|
| Pages: | 288 |
| Formats: | paperback - ISBN 9780857197023 ebook - ISBN 9780857197030 audio - ISBN 0000000000047 |
If you’d like to get in touch with the author for interview or comment, or you’d like a review copy of this book, please contact us at pr@harriman-house.com or call +44 (0)1730 233870.
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