The Financial Numbers Game: Detecting Creative Accounting Practices

by Charles W. Mulford, Eugene E. Comiskey

Praise for The Financial Numbers Game

"So much for the notion 'those who can, do-those who can't, teach.' Mulford and Comiskey function successfully both as college professors and real-world financial mercenaries. These guys know their balance sheets. The Financial Numbers Game should serve as a survival manual for both serious individual investors and industry pros who study and act upon the interpretation of financial statements. This unique blend of battle-earned scholarship and quality writing is a must-read/must-have reference for serious financial statement analysis."
-Bob Acker, Editor/Publisher, The Acker Letter

"Wall Street's unforgiving attention to quarterly earnings presents ever-increasing pressure on CFOs to manage earnings and expectations. The Financial Numbers Game provides a clear explanation of the ways in which management can stretch, bend, and break accounting rules to reach the desired bottom line. This arms the serious investor or financial analyst with the healthy skepticism required to drive beyond reported results to a clear understanding of a firm's true performance."
-Mark Hurley, Managing Director, Training and Development Global Corporate and Investment Banking, Bank of America

"After reading The Financial Numbers Game, I feel as though I've taken a master's course in financial statement analysis. Mulford and Comiskey's latest book should be required reading for anyone who is serious about fundamentally analyzing stocks."
-Harry Domash, Investing Columnist, San Francisco Chronicle and Publisher, Winning Investing

The Financial Numbers Game identifies the steps businesses may take to misstate financial performance and helps its readers to identify those situations where reported results may not be what they seem.

Genres: Finance, Accounting, Business, Money, Economics, Nonfiction, Textbooks

408 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Nikola · Rating 4 out of 5]

80% of companies in the 90s on their way to commit financial fraud.

[Yang Ming Wen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, by far, the most comprehensive book on accounting gimmick I have ever read. I have read a few other books on the same topic, including Thornton O'Glove's "Quality of Earnings". "The Financial Number Game" surpasses them all in term of both depth and width. With almost 400 pages printed in font 8 or 9, "The Financial Number Game" is written by the professionals to the professionals in their professionally boring language. And for that reason, it is not for the faint-hearted. It contains gems like summerized list of technics to "play the number game" and list of technics to detect them; it also contains sections on SEC policy matters, which individual investors would not be very interested. However, if you ever manage to plough through this book, you will be armed with the knowledge and technics in digging the truth out of those 10-K /10-Q footnotes that few possess. I recommend this book to all, professional or individual, who take investment as serious business.

[Ahmed Mustafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing and everything, I have reached page 170 and I stopped because I literally got what I wanted to know so I didn't need to go on anymore because it is so much into detail. I think I'll consider it as read until I feel like getting into the details

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything to do with cooking and food gets me interested. This book captured me; she had a hard time but success; good for her. Sometimes you have to think of yourself and what you want. A feel good story.

[Matthias Jørgensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book, but inferior to both Schlitt's book (in terms of thorough walkthroughs) and Quality of Earnings for more practical examples. Good as an introductory text to intermediates in accounting re: external use of financial statements with an eye to checking "fraud"/Aggresive accounting.

[Irham Kusuma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book greatly adds to my insight about financial statement analysis

[May Ling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the better books for considering what has happened in the way of sneaky accounting practices. I think why it gets slight marks off is that the writing style is boring. Accounting is hard enough to get enthused about. I like that there were tons of examples, but there were almost too many. I know most of the companies that are mentioned, but someone with much less knowledge might get very confused throughout.

[John Stelwagon · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of Mumford's books are worth reading and adopting into your analytical best practices. This one is the closest to "one stop shopping" but if you like this one you should go ahead and read them all.

[Sanjay Joshi]

I like to read this type of book as i am already in this field.

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I know it all from those accounting hacks. After learning the technical terms and processes it is all mostly common sense. Which is good... very much unlike say... astrology?