Investors are all too often lured by the prospect of instant millions and fall prey to the many fads of Wall Street. The myriad approaches they adopt offer little or no real prospect for long-term success and invariably run the risk of considerable economic loss - they resemble speculation or outright gambling, not a coherent investment program. But value investing - the strategy of investing in securities trading at an appreciable discount from underlying value - has a long history of delivering excellent investment results with limited downside risk. Taking its title from Benjamin Graham's often-repeated admonition to invest always with a margin of safety, Klarman's 'Margin of Safety' explains the philosophy of value investing, and perhaps more importantly, the logic behind it, demonstrating why it succeeds while other approaches fail. The blueprint that Klarman offers, if carefully followed, offers the investor the strong possibility of investment success.

"What do the most successful investors have in common? David M. Rubenstein, cofounder of one of the world's largest investment firms, has spent years interviewing the greatest investors in the world to discover the time-tested principles, hard-earned wisdom, and indispensable tools that guide their practice​"--

Howard Marks's The Most Important Thing distilled the investing insight of his celebrated client memos into a single volume and, for the first time, made his time-tested philosophy available to general readers. In this edition, Marks's wisdom is joined by the comments, insights, and counterpoints of four renowned investors and investment educators: Christopher C. Davis (Davis Funds), Joel Greenblatt (Gotham Capital), Paul Johnson (Nicusa Capital), and Seth A. Klarman (Baupost Group). These experts lend insight into such concepts as "second-level thinking," the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Marks also adds his own annotations, expanding on his book's original themes and issues. A new chapter addresses the importance of reasonable expectations, and a foreword by Bruce C. Greenwald, called "a guru to Wall Street's gurus" by the New York Times , speaks on value investing, productivity, and the economics of information. *** Howard Marks, the chairman and cofounder of Oaktree Capital Management, is renowned for his insightful assessments of market opportunity and risk. After four decades spent ascending to the top of the investment management profession, he is today sought out by the world's leading value investors, and his client memos brim with insightful commentary and a time-tested, fundamental philosophy. Now for the first time, all readers can benefit from Marks's wisdom, concentrated into a single volume that speaks to both the amateur and seasoned investor. Informed by a lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways. Marks expounds on such concepts as "second-level thinking," the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Frankly and honestly assessing his own decisions--and occasional missteps--he provides valuable lessons for critical thinking, risk assessment, and investment strategy. Encouraging investors to be "contrarian," Marks wisely judges market cycles and achieves returns through aggressive yet measured action. Which element is the most essential? Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, and each of Marks's subjects proves to be the most important thing. "This is that rarity, a useful book."--Warren Buffett

Glassman shows how to develop an investing strategy that enables readers to make money and sleep at night with the investing idea everyone is searching for: reasonable returns from one's portfolio and protection against devastating declines.

What should your investment strategy be now that the steady, upward trend of the U.S. stock market seems like history? The years ahead promise to be volatile, full of ups and downs, so is this the time for investors to hunker down and scale back? Not at all, is Jim Glassman’s advice. Sure, there were some people who bailed out of the market early and came out ahead, but that was luck—the kind of luck that wins the lottery once in a blue moon: it’s not a strategy. And if there is one clear lesson to be learned from all of the recent market drama, it’s that you need a point of view and a coherent investment strategy. And that’s just what Glassman provides in The Secret Code of the Superior Investor. If you believe that the long-term outlook for the American economy is positive (as Glassman and most experts do), then the best strategy is the tried-and-true approach that has worked well for more than a hundred years: acquiring a diversified portfolio of stocks in great companies and then holding on to them forever. Jim Glassman’s investing principles provide the ballast to help you keep your investing balance no matter how the markets bubble or bobble. His rigorous, practical, straightforward way of thinking and taking action enables you to build a portfolio that performs well no matter what the economic climate. Here is invaluable advice on what stocks and mutual funds to buy—and when to sell them. (Hint: Almost never.)