market folly

In the past, we've detailed various investment book recommendations from some truly notable investors. This list could quite possibly top them all though. After all, apart from Warren Buffett, Baupost Group's Seth Klarman is widely regarded as one of the most successful investment managers in the game. In fact, Klarman himself has written one of the most coveted books on investing out there, Margin of Safety. Copies are no longer in print and remaining copies sell for exorbitant sums. At the recent CFA Institute Annual Conference in Boston, Klarman provided a list of book recommendations and here are his picks:

- Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor: This should come as no surprise given that Klarman is a fundamental investor and Graham's text is literally *the* testament for value investors.


- Joel Greenblatt's You Can Be A Stock Market Genius: Greenblatt's book examines catalyst based investing such as spin-offs, mergers, risk arbitrage, etc in an effort to exploit market inefficiencies.


- Martin Whitman's The Aggressive Conservative Investor: This one delves into the topics of value investing and is regarded as a great guide for learning how to analyze and evaluate stocks. We've not read this book before and look forward to picking up a copy.


- Klarman also recommends anything by Jim Grant. Some of his books include: Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend as well as Money of the Mind and lastly, Mr. Market Miscalculates: The Bubble Years and Beyond.


- The Baupost Group manager also recommends anything by Roger Lowenstein, whose books include:

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist: This book's title is self-explanatory.

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management: Those of you interested in hedge funds would find this book particularly intriguing.

Also, Lowenstein's most recent book: The End of Wall Street which we also look forward to reading in the near future.


- Michael Lewis' classic, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. Klarman says Lewis hasn't written a bad book yet, so we'll add in his most recent regarding the subprime trade as well, The Big Short.


- Andrew Ross Sorkin's book about the financial crisis, Too Big to Fail


A rousing set of suggestions from an investing legend himself, Seth Klarman. For more great investment reading recommendations, head to some of our other guru picks:

- Warren Buffett's recommended reading
- Dan Loeb's favorites
- Hedge fund Blue Ridge Capital's recommended reading