Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns, Revised and Updated By Michael J. Mauboussin ,Alfred Rappaport

About The Book

Most investment books try to assess the attractiveness of a stock price by estimating the value of the company. Expectations Investing provides a powerful and insightful alternative to identifying gaps between price and value. Michael J. Mauboussin and Alfred Rappaport suggest that an investor start with a known quantity, the stock price, and ask what it implies for future financial results. After showing how to read expectations, Mauboussin and Rappaport provide a guide to rigorous strategic and financial analysis to help investors assess the likelihood of revisions to these expectations. Their framework traces value creation from the triggers that shape a company's performance to the impact on the value drivers. This allows a practitioner of expectations investing to determine whether a stock is an attractive buy or sell candidate. Investors who read this book will be able to evaluate stocks of companies in any sector or geography more effectively than those who use the standard approaches of most investors. Managers can use the book's principles to devise, adjust, and communicate their company's strategy in light of shareholder expectations. This revised and updated edition reflects the many changes in accounting and the business landscape since the book was first published and provides a wealth of new examples and case studies.

Editorial Reviews

In Expectations Investing, Michael Mauboussin and Al Rappaport break down investing into its component parts, explaining what makes for good companies and attractively priced stocks. Which isn't to say they make it easy. This is second-level thinking: a graduate-level course in intelligent investing.--Howard Marks, cofounder and cochairman, Oaktree Capital Management, and author of The Most Important Thing Illuminated and Mastering the Market Cycle

In Expectations Investing, Michael Mauboussin and Al Rappaport build off of the simple yet powerful observation that certain expectations embedded in any company's stock price are certain to offer investors a rigorous method to identify gaps between stock price and value. Truly a must have in any investor's library.--Annie Duke, author of Thinking in Bets and How to Decide

Expectations Investing was one of the first books that sparked my interest in investing. The core idea is as powerful as any, and the authors explain it in a way that makes it unforgettable. This excellent update to the original classic is must reading for all investors.--Patrick O'Shaughnessy, CFA, CEO, O'Shaughnessy Asset Management, and author of Millennial Money: How Young Investors can Build a Fortune

Mauboussin and Rappaport's approach to corporate valuation is as relevant and intelligent today as ever. Understanding expectations, assessing competitive strategy, appreciating optionality, and a laser focus on cash flow will make you a more effective investor in private or public markets.--Bill Gurley, General Partner, Benchmark Capital

One of the few investing books that gave me an 'ah-ha' moment and changed how I think about investing.--Morgan Housel, Partner, The Collaborative Fund, and author of The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

About Author

Michael J. Mauboussin ,Alfred Rappaport

Michael J. Mauboussin is head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global, Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He is an adjunct professor of finance at Columbia Business School. His books include More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places (Columbia, updated and expanded edition, 2007); Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition (2009); and The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing (2012).

Alfred Rappaport is the Leonard Spacek Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He is the author of Creating Shareholder Value (revised edition, 1997) and Saving Capitalism from Short-Termism: How to Build Long-Term Value and Take Back Our Financial Future (2011). Rappaport has been a guest columnist for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, Fortune, and BusinessWeek.