Reading Financial Reports for Dummies

by Lita Epstein

Book Overview

The U.S. government began standardizing and regulating financial reporting in 1929 when the stock market crash made it painfully clear that businesses often made absurd claims and that investors were... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470376287
• ISBN13: 9780470376287
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: For Dummies
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Even Better Than I Had Hoped...

I've never taken the time to leave feedback about any books I buy, but this book I really got a lot out of, and highly recommend. Although the description of the book seems to mostly focus on reading financial reports in order to evaluate companies you might want to invest in by buying stock, I bought the book because I wanted to be much more comfortable with reading - moreover analyzing and understanding - financial statements for business management purposes. Boy, I was NOT disappointed! By reading the book and constantly referring to the financial statements of 2 companies (Mattel and Hasbro), and interpreting, analyzing and comparing the numbers, I have really learned quite a lot about how to manage by the numbers. Now, when I look at financial statements, I know what every line means, I know what I'm looking for, how to interpret the numbers and changes in the numbers and/or ratios over time - I'm truly just as pleased as punch! This book is worth every penny you pay for it. And, because the author also tosses in a lot of revealing and useful information about analyzing financial statements to evaluate a company and the worth of its stock, I received quite an education there as well. Very eye opening. Whether you're a business owner, manager, accountant or stock investor, if you're even considering getting this book to enhance your knowledge, get it. It's a very, very good book. I kept a highlighter and some post it notes at my side, you may want to do the same. In any event, after reading this book (which, by the way is NOT a 'dry' read) you will have deep knowledge of financial statements - balance sheet, profit and loss (income statement) and cash flow statement. I highly recommend this book.

Learn to examine financial statements more effectively and efficiently.

I am a lawyer in technology, entertainment and corporate law. I bought this book for one of my children who is an undergraduate business major. After buying the book, I ended up reading the book myself. It helps the reader to review financial statements much more effectively and efficiently. It's the best book I've seen on the topic. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand what to look for and beware of in financial reports.

opening the pandora s box

reading financial report for me before is just like reading numbers but reading this book is it s not just only reading but also analyzing and decoding the numbers found in the financial reports..The authors use laymans term in order that the reader can understand the different accounting jargons.it is just __knowing yourself and knowing your investments... this book is a must for a serious investor and this book is intended for a defenceless investor who have no knowledge in checking the financial health of the company.