Field Note #83. On "Klarman (and Crypto?)"

Source: Seth Klarman, Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor (1991)

As a corrective to the speculative excesses and incoherent theses confounding much of crypto investing (especially, in the public market domain), it is instructive to revisit the out-of-print text by Baupost boss, Seth Klarman, teasing out the underpinnings of his value style approach.  

More than the chapters on valuation (much of which is inapposite in much of crypto), the exposition on risk remains instructive.  

It is unfortunate that in today's institutional investing landscape, the notion of "strategic cash"--a clear manifestation of "margin of safety"--is cast aside in favor of being fully invested (let alone (over-)levered).

Observation != inaction.  

This note pairs well with Field Notes  17, 26, 58, 62.

The Details.