market folly

Today we're starting a series of recommended reading from John Griffin's hedge fund Blue Ridge Capital.  Griffin was Julian Robertson's right-hand man while at Tiger Management before founding Blue Ridge.

Their reading list is quite extensive and broken up into four different categories. As such, we're going to post each category separately with links to others found at the bottom. Without further ado:


Blue Ridge Capital's Analytical Recommended Reading



The Art of Short Selling by Kathryn Staley: Examples and instructions on how to find overpriced stocks and profit from their decline.

Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks by Howard Schilit: How to identify inflated profits, suspicious write-offs, and shifted expenses.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel: A great investing guide covering all asset classes.

One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch: A classic with contributions from John Rothchild as well.

The Warren Buffett Way by Robert Hagstrom: Outline of Buffett's tenets for investing.

Security Analysis by Graham & Dodd): Hands down THE best book on fundamental analysis and value investing principles.

Common Stock and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher: Investment philosophies from a widely regarded investor.

Winning the Loser's Game: Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing by Charles Ellis: Growing with the markets, rather than fighting them: Topics ranging from compounding to fighting down-cycles.


Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Collins & Porras: Evaluation of what makes companies "great" and how to spot those with solid products, a great brand, and a bright future.

Against the Gods by Peter Bernstein: Comprehensive guide to understanding risk and probability throughout history.


As you can see, quite a lengthy and comprehensive compilation... and that's only one of Blue Ridge's lists. Below are their recommendations in the following categories:

- Blue Ridge's recommended behavioral finance reading

- Blue Ridge's recommended Economics reading

- Blue Ridge's recommended historical/biographical reading


Background on Blue Ridge:

Griffin is a Tiger Cub, and as mentioned above, he was Julian Robertson's right hand man. So, needless to say, he knows his stuff. Blue Ridge seeks absolute returns by investing in companies who dominate their industries and shorting the companies who have fundamental problems. Both Griffin at Blue Ridge and Lee Ainslie over at Maverick Capital like to effectively hedge with a solid balance of both long and short positions (like a true hedge fund... not like some of the crazy funds these days that aren't truly hedged). Griffin attended the University of Virginia for undergrad and received his MBA from Stanford.