Seth Klarman is the founder and president of the Baupost Group, a Boston-based private investment partnership, and the author of a book on value investing.
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Before founding Baupost, Klarman worked for Max Heine and Michael Price of the Mutual Shares fund (now a part of Franklin Templeton Investments). He founded the Baupost Group in 1982, which managed USD 22 Billion as of 2010.[1] Despite his unconventional strategies, he has consistently achieved high returns.[2] He is a very conservative investor, and often holds a significant amounts of cash in his investment portfolios, sometimes in excess of 50% of the total.[3] He often makes unusual investments, buying unpopular assets while they are undervalued, using complex derivatives, and buying put options. Klarman typically keeps a low profile, rarely speaking in public or granting interviews. He has recently, however, spoken pessimistically about the stock market and warned of future inflation.[4]
In 1991, Klarman authored Margin of Safety, Risk Averse Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor, which since has become a value investing classic. Now out of print, Margin of Safety has sold on Amazon for $1,200 and eBay for $2,000.[5]
Klarman is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Business School.[6] At Cornell, he was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity, where he commonly studied while watching TV in the fraternity library/TV room. Despite this unorthodox study style, he achieved Phi Beta Kappa.
Seth is the older brother of Harvard Law Professor Michael Klarman.