Seth Klarman books and reading recommendations
Klarman himself has written one of the most coveted books on value investing , Margin of Safety. The book is out of print, is one of the most stolen books from libraries, and sells for thousands of dollars online . At the recent CFA Institute Annual Conference , Klarman stated which books he recommends investors read.
Below is the list:
- Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor: This is not surprising, as the Intelligent Investor is literally the bible of value investing
- Joel Greenblatt’s You Can Be a Stock Market Genius: Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits: Greenblatt’s book explains how best to invest such as spin-offs, mergers, risk arbitrage, etc There are a lot of similiarities between Greenblatt’s book and Klarman’s Margin of Safety.
- Martin Whitman’s The Aggressive Conservative Investor : Martin Whitman is one of the greatest thinkers, and Value investors of our time. In a very brief conversation I had with Walter J. Schloss, Schloss highly recommended Whitman, need I say more? Whitman is chairman of Third Avenue Funds, a value fund with a great long term track record.. The book contains a lot of value concepts, and practical applications that are vital for a value investor to be familiar with.
- When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management: This bestseller is the tale of the collapse of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in 1998. The Hedge fund management team consisted of some of the greatest minds of our time.
- The End of Wall Street: Lowenstein’s tale of the financial crisis.
- Michael Lewis, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Liar’s Poker, and The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. All these books were bestsellers when they were released, and are still quite popular many years after their release. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine is Lewis’s most recent book which discusses several, obscure individuals who shorted the housing market before its crash.
