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I have Damodaran's Investment Valuation 2nd Ed. in my office but rarely review it. I would highly recommend Scoop Books - Guide to Investment Banking, M&A, and Corp Fin. Its a bright blue book and a bit expense ($100) but certainly worth it.

You are better off using Dam's website and free resources as a non-finance major may struggle with some of the granular items in his valuation books.

 
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it provides a great overview of valuation, that starts from understanding competitive dynamics/valuation drivers, to nitty, gritty financial concepts (albeit from a consultant's perspective).

honestly, the best way to learn is to get a couple of books and start reading. i can clearly remember studying finance from books and not understanding anything. only after i kept at it for sometime (going through different books) and continued to gain exposure to different concepts, did things begin to "click" and make sense. as a sophomore, if you pick any of these books and begin studying now, i can guarantee that you'll know much more than your peers 2-3 years from now. no easy way around it, just get the wessels/penman book and begin studying.

one point of clarification: if you're looking to gain BASIC exposure to/understanding of finance, you might want to check out brealey, myers, allen's "corporate finance". the penman/wessels book is more APPLIED and helpful in developing an analytical skill set useful in a work setting.

 

I have the first edition of investment valuation. It is actually labeled as a university edition. I find that it is not very hard to read/understand. Keep in mind that I majored in Economics and took a lot of finance classes that dealt with valuation.

 

I'm a business and econ major but I've only taken three econ classes thus far, two accounting and no finance (I'll be a sophomore in the fall) but I want to try and learn some of this stuff as I'll try getting a intern at a boutique upcoming summer. Would you guys then suggest that I look at Brealey, Myers, Allen's "corporate finance" instead of Damodaran?

 

Thanks all, will hit up Damodaran's website. Looks pretty comprehensive at least for a newb.

"God takes care of old folks and fools, while the Devil takes care of makin all the rules", P.E. 1998
 
hayabusa

Second, for corp fin theory, is the following a decent buy or is there better stuff out there:

corporate finance : Theory and Practice (this is also by Damodaran)

I've started reading this book, and I have some background. Its been a good read for me till now. I think it's worth it !!

 

Thanks all, gives me enough info for a choice.

"God takes care of old folks and fools, while the Devil takes care of makin all the rules", P.E. 1998
 

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