Book review: Better Value Investing

Better Value Investing by Andrew Hunt is a good introduction to value investing.

The author, an investment manager at Baillie Gifford, explains the key concepts in plain English: intrinsic value, margin of safety, Mr. Market, patience, flexibility, balance sheet strength, capital discipline, contrarianism, portfolio rebalancing, checklists.

The merit of the book is to go to the essence of value investing in 10 relatively short and readable chapters.

I especially liked some of the books? specific tools, such as the portfolio rebalancing sheet on page 124 and the investment checklist on pages 151-152. Such tools help investors to continuously improve on their skills and learn from mistakes, a theme running throughout the book.

I also enjoyed the authors? views on the ingredients of a good plan: make it yours; keep it simple; have realistic expectations; focus on execution, not outcomes.

I basically agreed with everything in the book and believe it?s useful for the beginning private investor (the last 3 pages of the book contain a very sensible summary of what matters in investing). More advanced investors will find more specific insights elsewhere (for instance, Deep Value Investing on net-nets or The Education of a Value Investor on an investor?s environment).