Editor’s Picks: Top 3 Book Reviews of 2024 and Sneak Peeks for 2025

What follows are briefly described as three of my favorite book reviews published in 2024 enterprising investor. Throughout the year, our review team members generously share their expertise and experience, allowing CFA charterholders to focus on books that provide insights, concepts, and techniques useful in their work. The three books I highlight here stand out for their applicability to real-world issues facing investment decision-makers.
Since 1989 I have benefited greatly from serving as a book review editor, initially for financial analysts magazine Since enterprising investor. I write some reviews myself and work with team members on others, which is a valuable part of my lifelong learning. Additionally, I find it rewarding to help other licensees develop the knowledge and skills they need to perform at the highest level.
The M&A Failure Trap: Why Most M&A Fail and How a Few Succeed. Baruch Lev and Gu Feng.
The authors’ finding that M&A failure rates of 70%-75% urgently required them to rigorously quantify the factors that produce success or vice versa. Particularly valuable is their exploration of the managerial incentives that continue to lead to deals that are doomed to fail. Lev and Gu manage to make their highly data-driven analysis highly readable, with colorful prose and engaging stories of trading successes and failures.
Ownership Dividends: The Coming Paradigm Shift in U.S. Stock Markets. Daniel Perris.
It is important for practitioners to read works that challenge conventional wisdom and perspectives. ownership dividends Definitely fits the bill. An alternative argument, which Perris strongly supports, is that the lack of emphasis on dividends over the past few decades is the result of specific historical circumstances, and now the pendulum will swing toward a more traditional focus on current income. What I find particularly interesting is his argument that Modigliani and Miller’s theory of dividend irrelevance is period-limited rather than generalizable to all eras.
Chaotic Markets: A History of Market Crises Around the World. Brendan Hughes.
Despite Hegel’s maxim, often stated as “We learn from history, but we do not learn from history,” investment professionals can indeed improve their game by studying past market cycles. Hughes’s examination of financial crises dates back to the eighteenth century. However, he applies these lessons to investment decisions that address major contemporary issues such as the technological challenges facing existing financial institutions and the obstacles the United States faces in trying to correct fiscal imbalances.
2025 Sneak Preview
2025, tracking comments Buffett’s early investing: New investigation into Warren Buffett’s decade of best returnsby Brett Gardner. The energy and creativity inherent in the Oracle of Omaha’s initial triumphs have provided guidance and inspiration to opportunity seekers for more than half a century.
Also pay attention to next year’s enterprising investorcommitment The Making of Modern Corporate Finance: A History of Ideas and How They Helped Build National Wealthby Donald H. Chew, Jr. The theory discussed in this book is a staple of the CFA curriculum, but Chew raises an additional, critically important dimension—the impact of ideas on financial practice and, through this medium, on the global economy. huge impact. After reading this book, practitioners will not only regard these pioneers of corporate finance as outstanding figures in textbooks, but also feel familiar with them.
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All posts are the opinions of the author. Therefore, they should not be considered investment advice, and the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute or the author’s employer.
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