Beyond the Zulu Principle: Extraordinary Profits from Growth Shares - Hardcover

Slater, Jim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857975529 ISBN 13: 9781857975529

Publisher: Orion Business (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ), 1996

Synopsis

From this book, readers will learn when to buy shares and, even more importantly, when to sell. Other aspects of investment are covered - such as creative accounting, portfolio management, overseas markets and the investor's relationship with their broker. This book is designed to help readers make extraordinary profits from ordinary shares.

About this title

Review

"Good investment is often a case of turning conventional wisdom on its head", says Jim Slater in the very first sentence of chapter one. He certainly goes against received wisdom in proposing that small investors eschew diversification and concentrate their energies and their capital on 10 to 12 stocks. However, more than being an extension of the Zulu Principle, this volume serves as a companion to his real magnum opus, Company REFS (Really Essential Financial Statistics).

Slater draws an early distinction between "value" and "growth" investing, but the true underlying contest is between growth investing and the "Efficient Market" hypothesis that holds that "everything that is known about a company" is reflected in the share price. The fulcrum of the argument is that there are growth shares that are underpriced because the market has not yet absorbed available information and consensus forecasts. Beyond the Zulu Principle is dedicated to elucidating and applying the tests for determining whether a growth share has further to run. Much of this book makes compelling and seductive reading although after the initial euphoria, the doubts began to intrude--particularly regarding the theoretical underpinning of the crucial PEG factor--the ratio of the prospective P/E and estimated growth in EPS--which, unlike its constituents, seems to be an arbitrary ratio and does not appear to measure anything. Likewise, some of the author's arithmetic has an engaging seat-of-the-pants frisson.

In the main, Beyond the Zulu Principle is well focused, commendably brief and rarely heavy going. There is one final reservation, however. The usefulness of this volume in the absence of Slater's REFS itself is a moot point. REFS claims to take all the slog out of the testing process, but it costs. Do you sincerely want to be rich? --David Meyer

Review

Beyond The Zulu Principle is easy to read, understandable, enjoyable and enlightening. The nearest thing to a page-turner the sophisticated private investor will find on the financial bookshelves. -- Terry Bond, Proshare

There is a really superb chapter on Technology Stocks which alone justifies the book. -- Conor McCarthy, Techinvest

This is Jim Slater's best book to date. -- Terry Smith, Daily Express

Edition details

• Publisher: Orion Business (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857975529
• ISBN 13: 9781857975529
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288