A Zebra in Lion Country: Ralph Wanger's Investment Survival Guide

Very easy to read, it won't give you any formulas nor techniques on valuation of stocks, but the author is very knowledgeable and he shares his experience in the stock market, giving you his perspective on investing and the mistake that not only others made but that also he made.I recommend it, it will change your view of how the stock market behaves and how you invest your money.

Funny, and informative. Wish I read this 5 years ago.

A good book for beginners, but several of the classics are superior.

I had to read this for a finance class and it wasn't that great. A short quick read (I read the book in one sitting the day before my report was due) but I don't agree with some of his ideals. Read for yourself and see. Please let me know if I'm wrong and you make millions. If so please share.

With a general knowledge of logic, one can discern the value here.

When portfolio managers in the US some years ago voted on who they would prefer to manage their own money Warren Buffett only came second. Top ranked was the dean of small cap investing, Ralph Wanger, who was also the first to receive Morningstar's Fund Manager's Liftetime Acheivement Award. When Wanger in 2005 deservedly threw in the towel after 33 years of portfolio management his benchmark could show a commanding 12 per cent annual return. Wanger did even better and achieved 16 per cent - no doubt a huge accomplishment over such a long period. However, I would expect that at least part of the reason Wanger championed the above poll was that he seems to be a very likable person. Wanger is a GARP-investor in small cap stocks. In this book he openly shares how he pulled off his remarkable success.Small caps constitute a huge investment universe. Wanger's method to narrow the playing field and make it practical was to use long term themes. At any one time he had located half a dozen of social, technical or economic trends to guide him to fertile grounds. Since the competition is so fierce between asset managers with short term horizon and trading costs are high, Wanger chose to focus on an investment horizon of 4 to 5 years or even longer. Predicting the fortunes for a company that long into the future is a highly uncertain venture and thus the themes acted as long lasting tail winds that in Wanger's mind decreased the risk for negative estimation errors. Guided by the themes Wanger and his co-workers created a list of roughly 600 stocks that they could consider owning and that they monitored weekly for outlier movements in share price or consensus earnings. The criteria's for a stock to also end up in the portfolio was threefold; growth potential, financial strength and fundamental value. The company should have credible sales and profit growth, preferably through an entrepreneurial management dominating a boring but profitable niche market. A low debt level for the type of business the company was in, an understandable business model and conservative accounting practices gave Wanger the confidence that the company could withstand inevitable tougher times. Further, to end up in the portfolio Wanger wanted the stock to be cheap both in relation to the replacement value of assets and to EPS two years out in time. For each holding an investment case was written. He wasn't a market timer but if he couldn't find enough stocks to satisfy his investment criteria cash would accumulate as a residual. By sticking to his strategy of themes and strict investment criteria Wanger argues he got the strength to stay out of the latest investment fads and it also made it possible to screen out much of the noise that brokers and media constantly produce. During the second part of his career Wanter went from investing in US small caps to invest globally. He argued that by not using the same short term horizon as the in-the-rumour-mill-loop-locals "their edge washes out over time". Even well informed rumours can cause over- and under reactions that could be taken advantage off by the long term investor.Apart from using a co-writer Wanger had a quarter of a century of lively and humorous investment letters to fall back on when writing this book. Apparently there were investors in his fund who stated that the main reason for them to place money with Wanger was to receive these letters! Understandably then this witty book is a pleasure to read. When the book was published the stock market had had 15 years of continuous bull market (even if it didn't always feel that way at the time) and now and then even the level headed Wanger feels a bit "90's" compared to the current "cult of anti-equities". The rein of buy-and-hold is strong and the discussion on risk management is short."If you want to stand out from the pack, you have to stand outside the pack". Wanger was indeed a zebra who ventured further out in lion country than most and what spectacular results the walkabout gave.This is a review by investingbythebooks.com

I thought this was a terrific read. Lots of good advice based on years of experience. I only wish I had read this book years ago. I believe those who have given this book negative ratings are looking for tips on what stocks to buy, which isn't going to happen in any worthwhile investment book that you read.I especially liked some of the latter chapters, e.g., Chapter 10 Living Through The Crash. From my experience from investing over 40 years, most of my major investment successes resulted from buys during a major market sell off. And, by major sell off I mean close to 20% or higher. I will admit that it takes a lot of courage and is difficult, but buying good companies at a significant discount will pay off.As an aside, I began investing in Mr. Wanger's Acorn Fund in about 1980 when Individual Retirement Accounts first came into being. Under Mr. Wanger's guidance my returns were terrific for nearly 25 years. Unfortunately for me, Wanger sold the management company to a larger entity, however he continued on in an advisory capacity for a few years thereafter, so returns were satisfactory for a while. However, when he finally retired returns began to slip and the fund's returns eventually became mediocre and I finally sold my entire position in 2016. All good things eventually come to an end. As Mr. Wanger comments in the book most good companies have a good investment life of about 30 years.I highly recommend that you read this book if you consider yourself an investor. On the other hand, if you consider yourself a gambler and equate buying a stock to buying a lottery ticket, you are probably not going to get what you are looking for.

The subtitle claims this book explains "how to invest in small rapidly growing companies".Well, it turns out that, according to this book, the best way to accomplish this is to invest in small, rapidly growing companies. In all seriosness, there is almost no useful advice in this book about how to pick stocks.What this book does explain, in extravagent detail, is why you should not pick stocks, you should use a mutual fund, and while we are on the subject, the Acorn fund (which is run by Ralph) has made lots of money. Also Acorn lost some money here and there, you shouldn't get the impression that the author is claiming infallability.In all fairness, this was a fairly interesting read, and provided some good general insights into investing. But as far as useful insights into choosing small, rapidly growing companies, the reader is left with the impression that this can only be done by professionals. A legitimate viewpoint, except for the fact that this is exactly what the book promises (fraudulently, in my estimation) to explain how to do.