Invest Like a Dealmaker: Secrets from a Former Banking Insider (Agora Series)

243 Pages·2008·1.42 MB·English

by  Christopher W. Mayer

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Secrets from a Former
Banking Insider
CHRISTOPHER W. MAYER
Foreword by Addison Wiggin
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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More Praise for Invest like a Dealmaker
Chris Mayer is one of the few people in America who thinks deeply and originally
about investing. The ideas in this book will enrich you and change your perspec-
tive about investing forever. You’ll never look at a stock symbol in the same way.
This is the complete guide to sophisticated, safe investing.
—Porter Stansberry, founder, Stansberry & Associates Investment Research
I’ve known Chris for years now. His new book has all the essential principles of
investing, historical vignettes about curious characters and insights from all the great-
est investing legends, tied up in an entertaining package that only someone as well-
read as Chris could produce. In the last twenty years, I’ve read hundreds of financial
books. Most weren’t worth the time it took to read the table of contents. You’ll want
to read Invest Like a Dealmaker cover to cover and refer to it often.
—Dan Ferris, editor, Extreme Value
Chris Mayer has put together a wonderful compendium of investment wisdom.
You’ll find the “usual suspects”—Warren Buffett, Jay Gould, George Soros, et al.
But you’ll also learn from great investors you’ve never heard of, backed up with great
research. Turn to just about any page and you’ll find something profound that will
help you make more money in the markets.
—Mark Tier, author, The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros
This excellent book by Chris Mayer, an accomplished securities analyst, can be read
in three hours. But it contains so many interesting observations supported by the
investment knowledge of some of the world’s most successful value investors that
every reader will gain insights that will serve him well for the rest of his life!
—Marc Faber, editor, the Gloom Boom & Doom Report
Chris Mayer has done a nice job of explaining and illustrating how and why a com-
pany (and its stock) can be valued differently by people who simply view it through
different perspectives. His book is a useful addition to the library on investing.
—Ron Muhlenkamp, president, Muhlenkamp & Company, Inc.
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IInnvveesstt LLiikkee AA
DDeeaallmmaakkeerr
Secrets from a Former
Banking Insider
CHRISTOPHER W. MAYER
Foreword by Addison Wiggin
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Copyright © 2008 by Christopher W. Mayer. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
Wiley Bicentennial Logo: Richard J. Pacifico
Quoted material from interview with Martin Whitman reprinted from “Value at
Risk,” by James Grant, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer 24, no. 21 (November 23, 2006).
Reprinted with permission of Grant’s, copyright 2007.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or t ransmitted
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Mayer, Christopher W., 1972-
Invest like a dealmaker : secrets from a former banking insider/
by Christopher W. Mayer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-18091-4 (cloth)
1. Stocks. 2. Corporations—valuation. 3. Portfolio management.
4. Investments. I. Title.
HG4661.M375 2008
332.63'22—dc22
2007034460
Printed in the United States of America.
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CCOONNTTEENNTTSS
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xv
CHAPTER 1: A Tale of Two Markets 1
CHAPTER 2: T he Dealmaker’s Toolbox 29
CHAPTER 3: Creating Wealth—Or What Makes Stocks Rise 55
CHAPTER 4: Hunting Grounds 69
CHAPTER 5: T he Cracks and Crevices of Investment Wisdom 105
CHAPTER 6: W hen to Sell 161
CHAPTER 7: On Doing the Wrong Thing 169
CHAPTER 8: Small Questions, Big Opportunities 197
Notes 203
Index 211
vii
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