The investment industry has seen some brilliant minds where Seth Klarman is a brilliant name. He is the founder and current chairman of the Baupost Group, a Boston-based private investment firm. Not only is he a successful businessman, but he has also written a fabulous book “Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor.” This book covers the topic of value investing and provides a complete guide for those who are willing to invest in any type of business.

Klarman’s Baupost Group is managing approximately $15 billion on behalf of institutions and individuals right now. With over 30 years of value investing experience, Klarman is definitely a name everyone knows in this industry. Not only do people take your suggestions when investing in any kind of business, but they also take it as a source of inspiration. He founded Boupost in 1982 and has since been associated with this organization which is now a well established private investment firm.

Early Childhood and Education

Klarman was born and raised in Baltimore when his father worked at Johns Hopkins University as a public health economist. It can be said that his father was one of the motivating factors for him to choose to be in the investment industry, since he had knowledge of economics since his childhood. He grew up watching his father talk about economic issues and how those issues affect people’s investments. Klarman’s mother was also an educated lady who used to teach English in high school.

Klarman has attended two well-known universities, Cornel University and Harvard Business School. He is a graduate of both institutes. One thing to note about Klarman is that he was kind of an Orthodox student who used to watch TV in the fraternity library when he was at Cornell University. While at Cornell, he was also a member of the Delta Chi fraternity. Although he was not an active student, he did achieve Phi Beta Kappa.

Early work history

Klarman’s biggest achievement is founding the Baupost group, but before that he also worked for a couple of companies. He initially worked for Michael Price and Max Heine; both have now become part of Franklin Templeton Investments). He stopped working for them in 1982 and founded the Baupost Group finally in 1982. As of 2010, this business has managed to reach the milestone of US$22 billion. The biggest distinguishing factor in his success in such investment plans where others fail is his unconventional thinking and planning. Since founding Baupost, Klarman has consistently achieved high returns and yet is considered one of the most successful business people in the US How he thinks is something of a mystery to many of the giants in the industry, as who makes unique decisions most of the time. He often invested in assets that were undervalued at the time and no one was willing to spend his money on them. He is a master mind when it comes to trading investments and that is the main reason why he is very successful today.

Klarman’s Personality

Like many rich people around the world, Klarman doesn’t like to keep a high profile. In fact, he lives a simple and casual life. He is also famous for not talking much, speaking rarely, and answering only important questions concisely. Financial journalists are always willing to accept an interview from him, but he rarely gives his opinion on anything or makes appointments for any magazine or television interviews. The Klarman with the light beard and square glasses on his eyes also looks very humble. Talking less doesn’t mean he doesn’t have good control over what he does, but it’s in his nature. However, he recently spoke to medical staff in a pessimistic manner commenting on the stock market situation and warned that there could be another inflation waiting for us in the near future.

career as an author

Klarman is not a full or part time author, but based on his experience and knowledge, he wrote a book called Margin of Safety: Risk Averse Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor in 1991. That is the only book written by the mastermind of the investment and since then it has become a classic for those who want to learn to invest in value. The book is out of print now, but sold for $1,200 a copy on Amazon and $2,000 a copy on eBay. This will give you an idea of ​​the importance and efforts put into that book by Klarman.

Klarman’s latest investments

Those who are new to the investment industry should follow big names like Klarman to determine which direction to go. The latest investments made by Klarman are described below.

– BP – Fund Ratio: 16.7%

– HP (Hawlett Packkard) – Background Ratio: 15.7%

– News Corp – Fund Ratio: 11%

– Viasat – Fund Ratio: 11.8%

– Microsoft – Fund Ratio: 10%

The investments listed above are Klarman’s latest in 2011 and you can also see the ratios of the funds. Klarman is said to hold at least 50% of the fund ratios, but this statement appears to be wrong when looking at the investment ratios stated above.

Additional Information

The best thing about Seth Klarman is that he completely relies on the approval of his clients whose money he is going to invest, his self-confidence, and most importantly, the well-organized team he has established at Baupost. Klarman’s working principles are quite different from those of other giants in the industry and are the same principles that he has also applied at Baupost. The company’s researchers and analysts are not assigned to a particular market, such as automotive, pharmaceutical, financial, or oil/gas, but are encouraged to practice their analytical skills in opportunity markets.