And, I just got my hands on it! If you’re a student in college or a very resourceful user of libraries in general, you might be able to too. Or, maybe you just have some extra money hanging around and want to throw it at a book. Rumor has it, if you’re interested long term value investing, you can’t find a better book than this. It is, The Intelligent Investor
of our times. But, unlike Ben Graham, the writer decided only to publish a limited number of copies of this book. Why? Beats me. Maybe because he likes seeing the price of his book skyrocket to stratospheric levels. Or, because he likes seeing filthy rich hedge fund managers sink to the level of stealing his book from public libraries. In fact, the New York Public Library (and probably most others) won’t even let you check this book out. You have to go in and use it while your there, or painstakingly copy each yellowing page for your own “private” use.
So, who is this mysterious writer, Seth Klarman? He’s the manager of The Baupost Group, a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Business School and such a standout in his time there that, upon graduation, a few wealthy families gave him $21 million to manage. He’s returned these investors’ faith in him with 20% annualized returns since 1982 and only one down year. He authored this book in 1991 and its value has down nothing but increase since. What makes him so unique? Well, in addition to the impressive returns that he’s managed to capture over the last 25 years, he’s also one of the few fund managers out there that truly believes in the deep value. He doesn’t just buy dips and he is totally comfortable holding in excess of 50% of his fund in cash when appropriate opportunities don’t present themselves. And, he penned Margin of Safety in 1991 so that the rest of us could try to imitate his success.
I’ll be reading Margin of Safety as quick as I can, provided school doesn’t get in the way so stay tuned for a review soon. If you can’t wait, take some time to check out this article that attempts to summarize Seth Klarman’s strategies. Or, check out his disclosed holdings here.
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