There's plenty of grumbling among investors about how to find value in a galloping stock market. In fact, that question has been asked incessantly since this unprecedented bull run began more than a decade ago.

But finding undervalued stocks is possible no matter what type of market you're in. In fact, it's best to stop thinking about market swings altogether. It's all a question of gathering the right information, learning some basic rules and calculations, and being coldly objective about where you're placing your hard-earned investment dollars.

That means understanding your tolerance for risk.

If you stopped someone on the street and asked for a basic definition of value investing, they might shrug and give some variation of "buy low, sell high." They're not wrong, in any kind of investment strategy, you're looking for bargains that pay off someday.

But value investing, unlike its close partner growth investing, is a strategy unto itself and requires its own discipline. A growth investor takes a look at the evidence of product, management, and financial performance and places a bet based on the earnings potential of a particular company, often a very young company. A value investor takes all those things into account, but he or she is looking for something more -- a tarnished jewel that others might avoid.

That might mean looking beyond current sales and earnings to peer closely at other financial measuring sticks that tell more about a company's potential than its current prospects.

Sometimes, value investing means looking at companies that are down on their luck or have stock prices that have lagged in the basement for some time. Maybe they've had lousy management, but that might be changing. Maybe their biggest competitor's success is starting to wane. Or perhaps, they are ripe for a buyout which typically raises a stock's price.

At no time in history has the individual investor been in a better position to make competent decisions about his or her money. The explosion of information online (good and reliable sources of information, that is) and in the general media has made it possible for ordinary people to gather the information they need quickly and inexpensively. The whole point is knowing what to look for.

How to Be a Value Investor is a guide to finding information that will help you discover undervalued stocks. But it will also help you understand the same philosophy that professional stock-pickers use when they're running mutual funds. You may never buy individual stocks at any point in your lifetime, but understanding the tools necessary to uncovering valuable investments will serve you well in any investment decision you make.

Information is power. This book is intended to help you find that information and use it wisely.

-- Lisa Holton