My New Book is Out: The Art of Value Investing

Please forgive the shameless plug, but it’s not every day (in fact, it’s been four years!) that I publish a book.

Nearly a decade ago, I partnered with one of my investors, John Heins, to start a monthly investment newsletter called Value Investor Insight. We’ve now written a book entitled, The Art of Value Investing: How the World's Best Investors Beat the Market, which has just hit bookshelves (you can order it here.

It’s getting rave reviews – here are two:

“I learned the investment business largely from the work and thinking of other investors. The Art of Value Investing is a thoughtfully organized compilation of some of the best investment insights I have ever read. Read this book with care. It will be one of the highest-return investments you will ever make.”

—William A. Ackman, founder, Pershing Square Capital Management

“An outstanding addition to the volumes written on value investing. Not only do the authors offer their own valuable insights but they have provided in one publication invaluable insights from some of the most accomplished professionals in the investment business. I would call this publication a must-read for any serious investor.”

—Leon G. Cooperman, founder, Chairman and CEO, Omega Advisors

The book is essentially a greatest-hits compendium of greatest quotes from Value Investor Insight, organized to match the progression one would follow in defining and executing an investment strategy: from the setting of core philosophy and circle of competence; through idea generation, research and analysis; to buying, selling and portfolio management; and ending up with a chapter on behavioral finance, or lessons learned on how to eradicate those irrational “What was I thinking?” types of mistakes. The insights are rarely ours, but those of the best money managers on the planet who have generously shared their wisdom over the years.

Here is the press release:

The Art of Value Investing

How the World's Best Investors Beat the Market

By John Heins and Whitney Tilson

Based on interviews with the world's most-successful value investors, The Art of Value Investing, by John Heins and Whitney Tilson, offers a comprehensive set of answers to the questions every equity money manager should have thought through clearly before holding himself or herself out as a worthy steward of other people’s money. What market inefficiencies will I try to exploit? How will I generate ideas? What will be my geographic focus? What analytical edge will I hope to have? What valuation methodologies will I use? What time horizon will I typically employ? How many stocks will I own? How specifically will I decide to buy or sell? Will I hedge, and how? How will I keep my emotions from getting the best of me?

Authors Tilson and Heins have delegated the task of providing answers to such questions to the experts: the market-beating money managers to whom they’ve had unparalleled access as the co-founders of leading investment newsletter Value Investor Insight. That includes such hedge fund superstars as Julian Robertson, Seth Klarman, Leon Cooperman, David Einhorn, Bill Ackman and Joel Greenblatt, as well as mutual-fund luminaries including Marty Whitman, Mason Hawkins, Jean-Marie Eveillard, Bill Nygren and Bruce Berkowitz.

Who should read The Art of Value Investing? It is as vital a resource for the just-starting-out investor as for the sophisticated professional one. The former will find a comprehensive guidebook for defining a sound investment strategy from A-to-Z; the latter will find all aspects of his or her existing strategy challenged or reconfirmed by the provocative thinking of their most-successful peers. It also is a must-read for any investor – institutional or individual – charged with choosing the best managers for the money they are allocating to equities. Choosing the right managers requires knowing all the right questions to ask as well as the answers worthy of respect and attention – both of which are delivered in The Art of Value Investing.

Please let me know what you think of it!