Founded Martin Capital Management in 1987 after twenty years in municipal finance and mergers and acquisitions; wrote A Decade of Delusions: From Speculative Contagion to the Great Recession.
1 book of their own · 7 books they recommend
Client letters through the dot-com bubble; value discipline written contemporaneously
“What a unique opportunity to traverse the Bubble and post-Bubble years with Frank Martin, exactly as he described them to his clients in real time. Speculative Contagion is sure to enlighten…” — Seth Klarman
Source: Klarman on traversing the bubble years with Martin
Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Seth Klarman, Warren Buffett
Speculative Contagion | Client letters through the dot-com bubble; value discipline written contemporaneously | 2006 | T3 | Mohnish Pabrai, Seth Klarman, Warren Buffett |
Avoid permanent loss: buy well below value and aim for absolute returns.
“Margin of Safety, published in 1991 – some concepts are timeless.” — Frank Martin
Source: Martin on the book's concepts being timeless
Also recommended by: Arnold Van Den Berg, Guy Spier and 6 others
Against buy-and-hold: a few well-known positions, actively run, or else cash.
“The second book I read as a young investor was Gerald Loeb's Battle for Investment Survival, first published in 1934, the same year Ben Graham's seminal Security Analysis hit the bookstores, which…” — Frank Martin
Source: Martin on the second book he read as a young investor
Berkshire's shareholder letters arranged by topic: governance, valuation, mergers.
“I have read everything I could on Buffett. He is our business/investment role model.” — Frank Martin
Source: Martin on Buffett as his business and investment role model
Also recommended by: Christopher Bloomstran, Francois Rochon and 10 others
Life in Nazi concentration camps, and logotherapy: finding meaning to survive.
“I have been deeply influenced by the existentialist and eminent psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who wrote the perennial best seller Man's Search for Meaning, one of the most influential books I've ever…” — Frank Martin
Source: Martin on one of the most influential books he has read and reread
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Nat Eliason, Ryan Holiday and 23 others
How individuals lose judgement in a crowd and how leaders sway crowds.
“The Crowd, written in 1895 by Gustave Le Bon, is probably the most instrumental book in framing my ability to go against the grain of conventional thought and not feel insecure.” — Frank Martin
Source: Martin on the book that let him go against conventional thought
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Peter Cundill and 1 other
Kahneman's synthesis of behavioral economics is the cognitive science underpinning every negotiation tactic. Anchoring, loss aversion, framing effects, and the planning fallacy — understanding why these biases operate, not just that they exist, makes you harder to exploit and more honest about your own irrationality.
“I just read Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, and I think that he and the late Amos Tversky are some of the great behavioural scientists. Since nobody in our industry thinks about this very…” — Frank Martin
Source: Martin on Kahneman and Tversky as great behavioural scientists
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Charles de Vaulx and 31 others
Prosperity grows as trade and specialisation let ideas meet and combine.
“Matt Ridley's book The Rational Optimist is a great chronicle of the evolution of development of different societies, the industrial revolution and now the technology and communications revolution.” — Frank Martin
Source: Martin on Ridley's chronicle of development and revolution
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Bill Gates, Mohnish Pabrai and 9 others
| Investing In Family Businesses | Forbes | 2009 |