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Strategies & Market Trends : The Rational Analyst -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Rudd who wrote (1627)	9/6/1999 1:34:00 PM
From: HeyRainier	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1720

Hello Bob, I was looking over some of the past messages on the thread, and I realized that I had somehow missed an entire post you had directed to me about a month ago. I'm glad I caught it, but I'm still terribly sorry for having missed it. Better late than never: The Analysis and Use of Financial Statements by Gerald I. White, Ashwinpaul C. Sondhi, Dov Fried and Financial Statement Analysis Theory Application and Interpretation by Leopold A. Bernstein, John J. Wild... I'm looking for solid, comprehensive reference that's not so obtuse you have to reread every other sentence and still have a hard time getting wrapped around what's being said. Some comments on Bernstein by a CFA candidate lead me to believe clarity may be a problem there.... For a moment there, I thought you were referring to me, because I echoed the same sentiments once in an informal review of Bernstein & Wild's text. In short, it's terrible, and I mean that in every sense of the word (sorry B&W). It is as if a number of accounting rule books had been pieced together and bound into one book. The explanations are dry and brief, while the examples are sparse and lack thoroughness, which often leaves you wondering what the authors meant. I had realized your worst fears when I read through that book: I'm looking for solid, comprehensive reference that's not so obtuse you have to reread every other sentence and still have a hard time getting wrapped around what's being said. As a means of getting around this obstacle, I actually bought the very book you were considering, Sondhi & Fried's, to supplement my studies. This text gets two thumbs up for exactly the opposite reason I rejected Bernstein & Wild's: the explanations are thorough, and they are accompanied by abundant examples to make sure you understand the concept. One other thing that I would like to point out is the differences in indexes. I have this opinion that a reference book is only as good as its index, and from that standpoint, you would likely reach the same conclusion when comparing the quality of both texts: it's easier to hone in on a subject right out of the blue when referring to Sondhi & Fried's index, but with Bernstein & Wild's, you'd wonder if they even wrote a chapter on that subject. The gaps are enormous. Hope this helps, late though as it was. Rainier PS. Apparently, because of all the ruckus and distaste for Bernstein & Wild's text last year, AIMR has decided to drop this text from the curriculum, and move back to the tried-and-true Sondhi & Fried text for the following year's program.