From the publisher
R. Stewart Eads, CFA, gives you 43 years of his professional stock analysis and investing experience distilled into a single, brief book.
Simplicity is the ultimate in sophistication. This statement holds true for investing. The investment markets are crowded with choices, risks, and general complexity. The investor who is able to sort through the mess and focus on time-tested fundamentals in all types of markets will generally be better prepared.
In his book, "Stock Investing Fundamentals", R. Stewart Eads, CFA, presents 43 years of personal investment industry experience to the reader. The compact lessons contained in the book provide the reader with a rare, unique look into the methodical tools investment professionals use to study the investment market and manage investment portfolios.
There are a multitude of books on investing in stocks. What could there be left to say? The focus here is on rudimentary concepts to help the investor have a much better understanding of the key determinants of stock price valuations over the long-term. Much reliance is based on what empirical history has to teach us combined with logical ideas of why stock prices have done what they have done over time. The concepts expressed herein can be understood by anyone willing to take the time to reflect on them. There are no higher mathematics involved, though some math is presented for those who are interested.
U. S. stock investors are subjected to an overload of information, much of which is not productive for long-term investment success. Too often, investors are influenced by fast-talking, impressive sounding "gurus" in the media. "Stock Investing Fundamentals" takes a less glamorous approach. However, the information provided can give any investor a better grasp of true drivers of stock market valuation.
The items addressed herein are simply not what sell books to the masses. It is not a "glamorous" book. As is so common on TV and in best-selling books, "Stock Investing Fundamentals" does not predict a future market crash or market surge, because nobody can reliably predict the future. Instead, the book provides the reader with information such as the relationship between inflation, earnings, and stock price trends. The purpose here is to appeal to the limited audience of intelligent, thinking investors -- the type of investors not easily separated from their money.
The book is somewhat of a maverick in that it is not entirely about arcane academic theories at the one extreme, nor is it shallow and frivolous at the other extreme. "Stock Investing Fundamentals" obtains a lot of its basis from empirical history, and is very heavy on applied common sense gleaned from decades in the investment business.
If you want to understand the basic fundamentals of what really drives the stock market, this book is for you. Let everyone else chase the latest investment fads, while you stop playing the market and start understanding it.
About the author
R. Stewart Eads, CFA is President of Eads & Heald Investment Counsel in Atlanta, GA. Mr. Eads is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charterholder and has an MBA degree from the Wharton Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania along with bachelors and masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has furthered his investment training at Stanford University and the University of Chicago in addition to other ongoing continuing education.
Mr. Eads spent 15 years in the Atlanta office of the Boston-based investment management firm of Thorndike, Doran, Paine and Lewis/Wellington Management Company where he served as Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and analyst. At Wellington, Mr. Eads managed accounts for clients such as Duke Power Company, Sherwin-Williams, City of Savannah, GA, Chatham County, GA, Emerson Electric, Trane, Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, E-Systems, St. Mary's University, Sheet Metal Workers, University of Alabama Endowment, The Citadel Endowment, etc. His accounts totaled over $300 million.
In addition to serving as a portfolio manager, his other major contributions included establishing a system for setting client investment objectives, founding and chairing the Future Themes Group that forecasts major trends in the economy and society that have investment significance over five years, and deriving a methodology to determine secular shifts in equity valuation (i.e., price/earnings ratios).
Prior to joining Thorndike/Wellington, Mr. Eads was an investment analyst with The Hartford Insurance Group for three years. Overall, he has been an investment professional for 43 years.
Mr. Eads' initial employment after receiving his MBA degree was in the Office of the Director at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Also, he spent time working with NASA on the moon project under Dr. Wernher von Braun.
Eads & Heald Investment Counsel, an Atlanta-based firm, was established in 1987 to bring institutional-caliber investment management services to investors of all types. The firm continues to serve investors, and can be found on the web at www.EadsHeald.com.
