Hey guys, I haven’t been around here for a while but I thought I would drop by and ask for help from some of the gurus around here. I finished the CFA last year and moved from the sell-side to a hedge fund about six months ago. I don’t have an accounting background, but it seemed fairly easy to pick up when I got into the industry – my accounting skills were at an acceptable level for the sell side and the CFA, but this is a whole different ball game. Specifically, we spend a good amount of time on the short side trying to uncover fraud and understand when a company is about to blow up. On the long side, it might be looking at the probability of bankruptcy of a particular company – i.e., does it survive? what should the cash burn model look like? etc. This is considerably more involved than the “management guided” earnings models you see coming out of the sell side (mostly useless). Obviously, practicing on real companies is helpful, but I am looking for a very challenging book to read on the side to help push me to the next level. Basically, I feel like I don’t know what I don’t know with some of the advanced topics, and I want to put some brackets around financial statement analysis at a “higher level.” I am looking for a very practical, hands on type book with practice questions. Just to be clear, books such as “Reading Financial Statements for Dummies, etc.” are going to be way too basic. Any suggestions? These ones seems like they might be okay – can anyone recommend / not recommend these books? http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Accounting-Joe-Ben-Hoyle/dp/0072523514/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236055835&sr=1-9 http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Financial-Accounting-Ronald-Huefner/dp/0759364265/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236055835&sr=1-2 What about HBS cases? Would those be helpful? Any other suggestions? Price is not really an issue (within reason) as long as the book is quality. Thanks.
you should search up text/books on Forensic Accounting; that should give you lots of knowledge into what you are asking for…
Or sign up for the Certified Fraud Examiner certification. It does not require prior accounting training but its very good for forensic examination.
Thanks guys. I looked at the CFE, but I am not sure I need another certification. I might just read the books and not take the exam. Has anyone read the books and/or taken the exam? Any other suggestions from anyone else out there? Thanks.
Bump – any other ideas? Thanks guys.