Greenblatt, Joel 1957-

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GREENBLATT, Joel 1957-

PERSONAL:

Born December 13, 1957, in Great Neck, NY. Education: University of Pennsylvania, B.S., M.B.A.

CAREER:

Writer, investment advisor, hedge-fund manager, business executive, financial professional, and educator. founder and managing partner, Gotham Capital (private investment partnership); founder, New York Securities Auction Corporation; cofounder, ValueInvestorsClub.com; founder, Magicformulainvesting.com. Columbia University, New York, NY, adjunct professor of business. Board chair, Alliant Techsystems.

WRITINGS:

You Can Be a Stock Market Genius (Even If You're Not Too Smart): Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1997.

The Little Book That Beats the Market, John Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author and investment advisor Joel Greenblatt is a financial expert whose successful experiences in the stock market have given him considerable practical expertise in investing. His hedge-fund investment firm, Gotham Capital, which relied heavily on junk bonds and high-yield small-cap stocks, achieved a fifty percent annualized return from 1985 to 1995. He is also the founder of the Web site Valueinvestorsclub.com, a resource where approved investors share advice and strategies. The author of two books on investing, Greenblatt is a strong proponent of education and a well-known contributor to schools in New York.

You Can Be a Stock Market Genius (Even If You're Not Too Smart): Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits is Greenblatt's first book for investors. Here he closely explores and analyzes financial techniques and investment vehicles, including some that have traditionally been considered risky, such as spin-offs, rights offerings, merger securities, and recapitalizations. The investment techniques suggested by Greenblatt "offer the potential for high return but are also extremely risky," noted Booklist reviewer David Rouse, and are therefore not recommended for novice investors. Alexander Wenner, writing in Library Journal, similarly observed that Greenblatt's counsel is aimed more at experienced investors, and that his advice is "probably beyond the neophyte." However, Rouse concluded that Greenblatt's "guide, though sometimes cocky, will help answer questions that beginners might have" about these types of high-risk, high-potential investments.

In The Little Book That Beats the Market, Greenblatt presents a slim volume of investing advice, streamlined and simplified so that it can be understood by non-expert investors, both adults and younger readers. He explains what he calls a "magic formula" for investing, which is "a reasonable variant of mainstream value-investing methods," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer. "Greenblatt's formula is based on Warren Buffett's investment principles: Invest in good companies when they are cheap," commented Kerry Hannon in USA Today. He provides advice for finding these kinds of companies and includes explanations of what investors should look for in a good company, how to assess a company's prospects, and how to determine if a particular company is a sound investment. Furthermore, he advocates hands-on research and reading everything possible about a company before making an investment decision. Greenblatt also advises investors to be disciplined in their investing, selecting a core group of twenty to thirty stocks that should be sold on a strict schedule, depending on performance, Hannon noted. The book is supported by another Web site that Greenblatt founded, Magicformulainvesting.com, a resource that provides investment advice and specialized searches for companies matching the criteria in the book. "Greenblatt boils investment jargon down to what you need to know as succinctly and humorously as possible," Hannon commented. "Lighthearted, witty, and humorous, the overall presentation is a great start for learning about investing" in a variety of types of stocks, bonds, and other vehicles, stated Library Journal contributor C. Geck. The Publishers Weekly critic concluded that investors "won't go too far wrong following his advice."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1997, David Rouse, review of You Can Be a Stock Market Genius (Even If You're Not Too Smart): Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits, p. 1097.

Library Journal, April 15, 1997, Alexander Wenner, review of You Can Be a Stock Market Genius (Even If You're Not Too Smart), p. 92; January 1, 2006, C. Geck, review of The Little Book That Beats the Market, p. 131.

Publishers Weekly, November 14, 2005, review of The Little Book that Beats the Market, p. 58.

USA Today, January 16, 2006, Kerry Hannon, "The Little Book Sums Up Stock Strategy," review of The Little Book That Beats the Market, p. 07B.