The Value Connection: A Four-step Market Screening Method to Match Good Companies with Good Stocks (Wiley Trading) [Hardcover]

Value is a concept that frequently eludes investors –– especially when it comes to stocks. In many cases, successfully identifying value can make the difference between picking a winner and getting burned. The Value Connection offers a systematic and doable method investors can use to take advantage of value in the stock market. Based on author Marc Gerstein′s "Value Connection" method, this book will show investors how to find potentially attractive value connections, analyze specific situations to see if the value connection is sound, buy the best value connected opportunities, and sell stocks for which the value connection has weakened. The proven four–step method outlined –– which allows investors to understand the relationship between a company and its stock –– will help any investor screen the stock market for the best values out there. Real world examples make understanding this revolutionary investing method easy.

Marc H. Gerstein (New York, NY) is the Director of Investment Research at Multex. Prior to that, he was in the research and editorial department at Value Line. Over the course of two decades he analyzed stocks across a wide variety of industries and sectors, including household products, specialty retail, restaurants, mining, energy, hotel/gaming, homebuilding, airlines, railroads, and media. Gerstein appears periodically on CNNfn, Bloomberg TV, and is often quoted in USA Today, CBS MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, and Money Online. He is also the author of Screening the Market (0–471–21559–7).

Getting your money’s worth may sound like an obvious goal, but putting the concept into practice is a difficult task if you’re unprepared, or if you cling to traditional preoccupations with finding share prices that are low compared to book value earnings, and so forth. A stock price that first seems to be low, may become quite high if the quality of the "merchandise" (the company you’ve invested in) is poor.

Based on author Marc Gerstein’s market screening method, The Value Connection shows you how to seek companies whose underlying merits are reasonable in light of the prices you’ll pay for their shares. You’ll learn techniques for different stock market behaviors, how to assess merchandise, how to evaluate price, and how to determine whether prices are fair when considering a firm’s overall worth.

After this brief introduction, you’ll receive a detailed explanation of each step, and learn how each of the market screening method’s four steps can be applied to the value connection investment style. Through in–depth insights, practical advice, and informative case studies, The Value Connection will prepare you to use this four–step screening method in your trading endeavors to:

• Find potentially attractive value connections
• Analyze specific ideas to see if the value connection is sound
• Buy the best value–connected opportunities
• Sell the stocks for which the value connection has dimmed

By focusing on ways to separately assess a company and its stock price, the value connection method will help bridge the gap connecting good companies and good stocks–and boost your bottom line in the process. In using the value connection method, you’ll always have a rational answer to why you like a company, why you think its stock is reasonably valued, why you did or did not buy the stock, and why you sold or continue to hold a certain stock in your portfolio.