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Profit from that advanced knowledge by considering investing in the franchise or other publicly traded companies. You can get additional information on the company from the two penny stock markets, which is where the stock will most likely trade.

Another useful way to use this magazine, is to look at new trends and old advertisers that continue to advertise. After all, who would spend money month after month if they had little to no response? Subscribe to this magazine and think outside the box. Let it be your business intelligence source. Even if you don’t invest in a home business, or perhaps you have a business already, use the magazine for information on the latest, greatest, hot, new, breakout trends in the business world.

James Garton

Author of 25 Ways to Make Money Online

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Greenblatt’s methods ultimately stem from the “intrinsic value” and “margin of safety” ideas developed by Benjamen Graham (see “Security Analysis” and “the Intelligent Investor”). However, in somewhat of a nod to adherents of the efficient market theory, Greenblatt focuses his energies on areas that are subject to less scrutiny, and hence, less likely to be efficiently priced by the stock market. He notes, for example, that many institutional investors are prohibited from owning certain kinds of securities (e.g., a stock index fund can’t own bonds), and that investors that receive securities in some transactions may not desire to hold them. By researching companies that are involved in “special situations,” Greenblatt theorizes that investors can uncover stocks that are worth more than their current market value. To this end, the book covers opportunities with spin-offs, bankruptcies, restructurings, rights offerings, re-capitalizations, merger securities and companies going private.

Although Greenblatt is clearly an intellectual heir to Benjamin Graham, one of the great things about this book is that is provides a theory, albeit a time-consuming one, whereby investors can uncover their own opportunities. IMHO, formulaic investing is unlikely to work over the long-haul, because a sucessful formula that is too simple to replicate will tend to draw competition. Rather than relying on formulas, Greenblatt tells readers how to identify situations that MAY present opportunities. It is up to the individual investor to research those potential opportunities and determine whether they are worth pursuing.

Although Greenblatt is a solid writer and the book is highly entertaining, I believe most readers would benefit from an understanding of value investing principles before trying to read this book. It might be a good idea to read Graham’s “Intelligent Investor” at the very least (although this is a much tougher read than Greenblatt’s book, and Graham’s approach is not entirely compatible with Greenblatt’s). Moreover, Greenblatt assumes that readers have a working familiarity of financial statements.

One last point of note – some of the ideas that Greenblatt sets forth are somewhat similar to those propounded by Marty Whitman in “the Aggressive Convervative Investor” and in “Value Investing – a Balanced Approach” (Greenblatt mentions Whitman’s Third Avenue Value Fund as a possible source of investment ideas in the book). Both of these are good reads, particularly along with Greenblatt’s book. Another good book to read is Dreman’s “Contrarian Investing.”

In all, this book is a great read, and I’d highly recommend it, but I would not recommend it for beginners.