Narrative and numbers - Damodaran

[tol1]

The relatively brief book tries to outline the relationship and schools of thoughts between investing based on qualitative and quantitative criteria.

 

As you know Damodaran is focused on number crunching and IMO tends to get lost in the rabbit hole with his valuation approach (just watch his Corporate Finance lecture where he spends hours on beta calculations etc).

 

The book disappoints and the examples contradict what he tries to achieve: build a bridge between numbers and narratives. Why am I saying this? For instance, his valuation examples fluctuate heavily (2x based on amended assumptions).

 

I prefer his blog and unfortunately cannot recommend the book.

[nickenumbers]

Thanks for the review on this book.  I thoroughly enjoy his opinion and analysis in general.  I follow his Youtube posts and catch up with them when I am able.

 

To the naked eye it would appear that he gets caught up in the math of "Being so exact and precise as to be pencil whipping and potentially wrong, rather than approximately RIGHT with his analysis!"  BUT, even he does not take the math that seriously at the end of the XLS exercise.

 

He is a great resource of information. Aswath Damodaran