Book Review: The Triumph of Value Investing

The Triumph of Value Investing (2010) by Janet Lowe

The purpose of this book is to explain why value investing has been and continues to be a good strategy for the long run. The author addresses many important points about value investing (e.g., margin of safety, valuation measures, earnings growth, etc.) but with the exception of some useful discussion of balance and income sheets, the text rarely goes beyond a superficial level of analysis. That is, I found the book to be more laudatory (highlighting the successes of prominent value investors) than explanatory (showing how to implement a value investing strategy). Throughout the book, the author frequently intersperses interview quotes from Warren Buffett, William O'Neil, David Iben, Charles Brandes, and other investors, which I found to be largely unnecessary. In fact, I consider excessive quotation of this sort to be an indication of a weak writer. I also thought the book was somewhat poorly organized in places, with occasional digressions on topics of questionable relevance. Thus, while I did not find anything wrong with what the author wrote about value investing, there was simply not enough detail for me to gain much of value from this book (pardon the pun).

Note: I read this book in March 2012.