Seth Klarman

T2InvestorsRecommendationsDistressed debt, activism and special situations

Founder and CEO, The Baupost Group, from 1982

A long public record at Baupost and one book, Margin of Safety, that became a value-investing touchstone despite never being reprinted.

2 books of their own · 9 letters · 4 articles · 21 books they recommend

Books they wrote 2

Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investin

Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor

· 1991 · Out of print since the 1990s and never reprinted; used copies trade at collector prices.

OL4108209W

Security Analysis, Seventh Edition

Security Analysis, Seventh Edition

Benjamin Graham, David L. Dodd · 2023 · Klarman was lead editor of the sixth (2008) and seventh (2023) editions.

OL34092762W

Letters 9

www.bishoprockcap.com/library/seth-klarman

Baupost's letters are private and Baupost publishes none, but a run of them leaked and is widely mirrored. The fullest public compilation is Bishop Rock Capital's Klarman library at bishoprockcap.com/library/seth-klarman, which hosts PDFs of the December 1995 - June 2001 partnership letters, the 2010 'Forgotten Lessons of 2008' extract from that year's annual letter, the Q4 2018, Q4 2019 and 2021 year-end letters, and a collected file. His public writing - the 2010 Financial Analysts Journal interview with Jason Zweig, the 2007 MIT Sloan remarks, and his preface to the sixth edition of Security Analysis - is listed in letters and articles.

• Baupost Group letters (collected)2022
• Baupost Limited Partnerships 2021 year-end letter2021
• Baupost Group Q4 2019 letter2020
• Baupost Group Q4 2018 letter2019
• What I've Learned From Warren Buffett (twelve lessons)2015
• Collection of Baupost Group letters, December 1995 - June 20012011
• Opportunities for Patient Investors (Klarman-Zweig interview, Financial Analysts Journal)2010
• The Forgotten Lessons of 2008 (twenty lessons, from the Baupost 2010 annual letter)2010
• MIT Remarks, October 20, 2007 (MIT Sloan Investment Management Conference speech)2007

Research papers 2

• Opportunities for Patient InvestorsFinancial Analysts Journal, 2010 · paywalled
• A Response to Lowenstein's Searching for Rational Investors in a Perfect StormThe Journal of Corporation Law, 2005

Articles and essays 2

• The Timeless Wisdom of Graham and Dodd (preface to Security Analysis, sixth edition)McGraw-Hill, 2008 · paywalled
• MIT Sloan Investment Management Conference remarksMIT Sloan, 2007

Books they recommend 21

Klarman's recommendations come from interviews and talks (widely circulated via MarketFolly and GuruFocus) and from his work editing the sixth edition of "Security Analysis." His core advice is to read financial history "as much as possible," and he singles out authors wholesale — saying Roger Lowenstein, Jim Grant and Michael Lewis haven't written a bad book.

Superbook reading list 11

Investing 4

Financial History 4

Biography and Memoir 1

Not yet given a topic 1

Sport 1

Masters in Business — Transcript: Seth Klarman, The Baupost Group (Bloomberg Radio) 2

Investing 2

Security Analysis

Security Analysis

Benjamin Graham, David L. Dodd

source

“we kind of thought of Security Analysis as the Bible, and we thought we should leave it alone.”

The Intelligent Investor

The Intelligent Investor

Benjamin Graham

source

“What I really thought was, I'm just updating The Intelligent Investor for modern examples and a contemporary market.”

Klarman on Taleb's praise of volatility and what Baupost strives for 1

Philosophy 1

Antifragile

Antifragile

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

source

“Nassim Taleb, author of the new book Antifragile, praises volatility and criticises those who would artificially damp it at great unseen cost. Taleb advises us to be 'anti-fragile'. This is exactly…”

Klarman on writing the book to be timeless 1

Investing 1

Margin of Safety

Margin of Safety

Seth A. Klarman

source

“Some twenty years ago, Margin of Safety was published which spelled out why financial markets weren't, and never would be, efficiently priced and what we intended to do about it. I endeavoured to…”

Klarman on founding Baupost on a philosophy taken straight from Graham and Dodd 1

Investing 1

Security Analysis

Security Analysis

Benjamin Graham, David L. Dodd

source

“We opened our investment partnerships for business in early 1983, a fledgling firm with an investment philosophy adopted straight from Graham and Dodd. We have stuck to the bedrock principles of…”

Klarman on traversing the bubble years with Martin 1

Investing 1

Masters in Business — Transcript: Seth Klarman, The Baupost Group, books segment 1

Science 1

Klarman on Gillian Tett on the downside of specialisation 1

Business and Management 1

Klarman on Kahneman's account of his intellectual journey 1

Psychology and Behaviour 1

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

source

“Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work that challenged a rational model of judgement and decision-making, recently published a remarkable account…”

Klarman on the book's tactical, specific strategies 1

Investing 1

You Can Be a Stock Market Genius

You Can Be a Stock Market Genius

Joel Greenblatt

source

“Joel Greenblatt's 'You Can be a Stock Market Genius' is tactical and includes some very specific and interesting strategies.”

Where they publish 6

• Masters in Business transcript: Seth Klarman
• Investment Masters Class book recommendations
• Superbook reading list
• MarketFolly — Seth Klarman's Recommended Reading List
• ValueWalk — Seth Klarman on best books to become a better investor
• Equities.com / Acquirer's Multiple — Seth Klarman: 32 Books Every Investor Should Read

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