The Signs Were There

When companies suffer a dramatic even catastrophic drop in their share price, it is the investors who lose their shirts and employees their jobs. But often, a company's published accounts offer clues to impending disaster, providing you know where to look. Through the forensic examination of more than 20 recent stock market disasters, Tim Steer reveals how companies hide or disguise worrying facts about the robustness of their business. In his lively style, he looks at the themes that underlie the ways companies hide the truth and he stresses that in an assessment of a company's accounts, investors should always bear in mind that the only fact is cash; everything else - profit, assets, etc - is a matter of opinion. Full of invaluable lessons for investors, the book concludes with some trenchant observations on what is wrong in the worlds of investment, audit and financial regulation, and what changes should be introduced.

Préface
The stories, scandals and crucial insights behind stock market disasters - and how to avoid them

Auteur
Tim Steer toured with Meat Loaf, Diana Ross, Cheap Trick, The Cars, The Small Faces, Leo Sayer and Thin Lizzy as a sound engineer, and managed Pink Floyd's sound and lighting system after the release of the The Wall. At the time it was one of the largest systems in the world. He then embarked on a new career, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young, and becoming a highly rated investment analyst with HSBC and then Merrill Lynch. In 2000 he joined fund managers New Star and subsequently Artemis, and was one of the top-ranked fund managers in the UK, being rated Triple A by Citywire. He has written regularly for the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph and featured in the 2018 Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on the collapse of Carillion.

Résumé
The stories, scandals and crucial insights behind stock market disasters - and how to avoid them.