Amazon.com: Bank Investing: A Practitioner's Field Guide: 9781119728047: Chandy, Suhail, Ding, Weison: Books

Book has a lot of editing issues. introducing terms without explanation. Formatting issues.

I am looking to learn about investing in banks, and to improve my thinking on the subject.After reading the introduction and the 1st chapter of this book, I was excited and began to have high hopes for this book. The first chapter had all the elements - interesting, comprehensive, organized, introducing a lot of the things I was looking for in an easy to understand way - topics that would be beneficial for anyone, including a novice like me, who appreciates learning in a bottoms-up way, where knowledge is built from the ground up. Introduction and Chapter 1 - clear. Well done. So far, so good.However, after a few pages, I started to get lost. A few chapters later, I began feeling frustrated, and skimming pages.The book goes on to describe material and what it is, but often times, it did not explain why it was important, how to go about using it, how to apply it, and how to interpret our findings. There were some brief real-world examples that tried to bring-home some of the lessons, but mostly, this was an empty exercise because when things got more difficult, the examples were lacking. And I found myself not learning a great deal. I had no real clue as to how to quantify the material we were reading about, how to compare banks using that material, and ultimately, I wasn't sure what to think. Leaving me wondering what I was getting out of it. There was not much about what the thinking is behind chunks of the book. It lacked that element of making the reader understand. The 'what,' 'why', 'how', questions, in an attempt to have application. I did not get much application out of parts of the book, despite really wanting to. And I could not build a sense of appreciation for the material, because I didn't know what to do with it or how to think about it. Or what conclusions I can make of it. While I got the sense that the book did attempt to do this sporadically, it was lacking in my opinion, and missed wide. The figures were inadequately cited, inadequately explained, and ultimately, inadequate in making the reader understand the thinking and message behind why it was important enough to mention. It didn't build an appreciation for why the material being mentioned was important. Instead, it left a void in this regard. I would read something, I would know it's important - but, I don't know what to do with it.(As a side note, "How To Read A Book" I think really helps build appreciation for the job a reader has in reading a book well, but also, the obligation of the writer to make sure they are delivering those elements well to the reader.)And without that coherent story to tell, it began to feel disorganized at times.Another negative - a lot of terms are new to me, and so the authors do introduce some terms, and abbreviations. But, sometimes they don't. Am I really going to turn every single previous page to find out what DDA's stands for from page 141? Not even the index has it cited. Am I really to turn each of the 140 previous pages to remind myself what those letters mean? And this happened a couple of times. I thought I started seeing new abbreviations that I had not seen before, and I began to believe that since I already began to feel that this book was disorganized, and I began to get the sense that the book is just abbreviating terms without ever having explained what they stood for in previous pages. I'm having a hard time trying to verify if they were ever previously introduced. So my apologies if they were. But I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't. Either way, is it really convenient to throw out abbreviations that weren't just recently mentioned? I don't think so. I think it creates an obstacle and breaks concentration. Instead, I'm left guessing and googling. If you are to use an abbreviation once, and not mention it again 100 pages later, inserting a kind reminder to the reader is probably a good idea, and at the very least, building an adequate index that is useful for quick reference. Instead, the book's index is 3 pages, full of very generic terms, missing the more specific and harder to find ideas and terms. I would have to be in quite the exploratory mood to look back for specific abbreviations that were previously mentioned. This adds to the frustrations.All in all - A lot of information is sprayed onto pages, without any coherent story to tell. A lot of material and sources are mentioned, which is cool, but, I am left trying to discover what to make of all this. I would appreciate magnitudes more explanation, that any level bank investor can appreciate and follow along. So that I may begin to apply the concepts immediately.Instead, I am left hoping that there will be a 2nd Edition that addresses all these sore spots.It's like walking into a CPR class, and you got all these tools laid out in front of you. You can tell they are super important. But without instruction, you have no idea what to do with them. In much the same way, this book needs much more instruction.My hope in writing this review is to give feedback to the authors so they may improve a 2nd Edition, which I hope to be released ASAP, as I do believe the material to be valuable, and the authors to be knowledgable. I just would like to learn what they know, how to use their knowledge, and understand how they think, and ultimately, how to apply what we learn practically speaking in systematic and step-by-step fashion with real-life colorful and comprehensive examples, so I may have an opportunity to closer join the author's level of knowledge.More explanations, more real-life examples, and if the concern is that the book may become too thick (which I wouldn't mind and would actually relish), then a complementary website is needed that is full of real-life examples in concert with each part of the instruction of the book, with explanation, so we know how and what the authors are thinking, how to quantify and develop that intuition, what those numbers may mean, what they mean in comparison, how to use these tools to compare banks, all to help us make better conclusions. Ultimately, if the goal of the book is for the reader to be a better bank investor, then this is what is needed. A website full of examples I think would enhance the opportunity to achieve this end, along with a much improved 2nd Edition.Overall, promising but frustrating.Other readers may disagree. But this was my experience.Appreciate the effort nonetheless.My thanks to the authors.I hope for an improved 2nd Edition, as soon as possible is my hope, because this book has potential to fill voids for aspiring bank investors.

Suhail wrote a perfect book for bank investors. Easy to understand, detailed, with real life example. Combined with Suhail experience, this is a must have for sellside and buyside investors.

Authors Chandy & Ding have written an excellent book that covers in detail how investors value individual banks. The topics discussed are supported by examples from bank financial statements making it easy to apply the valuation techniques outlined in the book. Banks are unique and are impacted by a myriad of factors that do not impact traditional operating businesses. They provide in-depth discussion of these many factors (the Fed, credit conditions, rating agencies, yield curve, etc.), and how each factor impacts the way a bank operates. A must-read book and desk reference for anyone who evaluates or invests in banks, or for someone who is considering a career in the banking industry…. Owen Jones, CFA

Banks analysis is complex and uses very specific language to account for its operations. The authors provide a comprehensive and thorough explanation of the inner mechanics of banks. The book gives a practical and in-depth review of how to assess and understand risk. It is well-written and approachable for professional investors as well as industry practitioners. I highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to better understand how banks function.