Muffie on Markets

Muffie Benson-Perella (muffie AT muffmarkets.com) was an Associate in the Investment Banking Division of a “Bulge Bracket” bank. She holds a B.A. in French and Art from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She concentrated in Contemporary French Poetry at prep school where she was awarded the exclusive premiership of the school’s “French Club.” Today, Ms. Benson-Perella is the Founder and Managing Director of “Muffie on Markets” (http://www.muffmarkets.com), a deep dive into capital markets, finance and investment strategy. She is also the Founder and Managing Director of Muff Cap, LLC., an invitation only, private investment vehicle for prestigious and accredited investors only, employing an actively managed, long-short strategy.

After I started my hedge fund, Daddsie ordered me a bunch of books on investing and finance. I moved into the UES condo that Daddsie used to lend to Nina, some girl that was always hanging around him until a month ago or so, and I got like seven packages with a dozen books all on investing.

Some of the books are really dull, and I don’t really have the heart to tell Daddsie that I already read a bunch of those kinds of dull books at Harvard, where I went to HBS.This one, “The Intelligent Investor,” had all sorts of wonderful cover blurbs. On the back “Money Magazine,” which obviously knows something about finance given the title, glows: “Fully conveys the basic principles of [Graham’s enormously successful and popular approach to investing.” Warren Buffet is right on the cover with: “By far the best book on investing ever written.”Sounds good right? Wrong.

Sure, it looks like a normal paperback, though it is kind of thick (650 pages worth of thick), but you start going through it and find out that the pages are exactly like a big finance text book. Booor-ing. Ugh. I figured there must be a bit of a shorter explanation somewhere on Mr. Graham, so I looked him up on Wikipedia and what do you think I found?

The guy died in 1976!

I don’t know what Daddsie was thinking. Hedge funds are a modern invention.

I did really like this book “Way of the Turtle,” though. It’s about this guy who makes a bet that anyone can be a successful trader, and so he starts a little camp of sorts and teaches everyone how to make outstanding returns. Now that kind of thing is fun. So I got to thinking, I should use MuffCap, LLC to open a little school. So I decided to invite a few girls to my own little hedge fund camp, “Way of the Muff.”And the first girl to accept was: Bess Levin, genius finance girl from DealBreaker!

Bess is an official contributor to Muffie on Markets too. You can reach her here at bess AT muffmarkets.com!

Welcome aboard, Bess!