📖Seth Klarman

Look Where Others Don't

🌿 Intermediate★★★★★

Look in places others refuse to explore.

💬

The best investments are found where other investors refuse to look — unloved industries, complex structures, and out-of-favor geographies.

— Margin of Safety,1991

🏠 Everyday Analogy

A process is like a pilot checklist: discipline prevents simple mistakes when pressure rises and keeps outcomes more repeatable.

📖 Core Interpretation

Seth Klarman advocates a repeatable process: define criteria, execute consistently, and review decisions against evidence. Process quality drives outcome consistency.
💎 Key Insight:Unpopularity and complexity create pricing inefficiencies.

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❓ Why It Matters

Without process, there is no reliable feedback loop. Structured execution and review improve decision quality over time.

🎯 How to Practice

Run a decision loop of research, thesis, execution, and post-mortem; document assumptions and update playbooks with evidence, not hindsight bias.

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Having opinions without execution criteria
Reviewing outcomes but not decisions
Abandoning rules during volatility spikes

📚 Case Studies

1
Penn Central Bankruptcy Bonds (1973)
Klarman and Baupost studied distressed railroad bonds after Penn Central’s 1970 bankruptcy, buying at deep discounts when most investors shunned the complex, illiquid securities.
✨ Outcome:Several bond issues eventually paid far more than the market implied, generating high absolute returns with limited downside risk.
2
RJR Nabisco Post-LBO Debt (1988)
Following KKR’s leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, many investors dumped the overlevered company’s bonds amid fears of default and recession.
✨ Outcome:As fundamentals stabilized and cash flows covered interest, bond prices recovered sharply, providing strong returns to investors who purchased during the panic.

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