"There are three central elements to a value-investment philosophy.
First, value investing is a bottom-up strategy entailing the identification of specific undervalued investment opportunities.
Second, Value investing is absolute-performance, not relative-performance oriented.
Finally, value investing is a risk-averse approach; attention is paid as much to what can go wrong (risk) as to what can go right (return)."
This is the introduction of Seth Klarman's chapter 7 of Margin of Safety, 1911 (Harper Collins)
ISBN 08887305105. Unfortunately, the book is out of print and very expensive to buy used.
Margin of Safety - Seth A. Karlman HG4521.K566 1991 (332.6'78-dc20)

Part II A Value-Investment Philosophy
C-5 Defining Your Investment Goals - focus on loss avoidance

C-6 Value Investing - Margin of Safety
"Value investing shines in a declining market" 96

C-7 At the Root of a Value-Investment Philosophy
avoid losing money by: 1. a bottom-up approach P.116 2. absolute performance orientation
3. pay attention to risk

C-8 The Art of Business Valuation

C-9 Investment Research: The challenge of Finding Attractive Investments - good investment ideas are rare 151
"value is not likely to exist in what the herd is buying" 155

C-10 just page 162 Q

C-11 omit Thrift Conversions

C-12 omit Bankrupt Securities

C-13 Portfolio Management and Trading

"the price paid for the stock, and not just business results, determines the return" 210

C-14 Investment Alternatives for Individual Investors

NEW ISSUES (IPOs) "Investors even remotely tempted to buy new issues must ask themselves how they could possibly fare well when a savvy issuer and a greedy underwriter are on the opposite side of every underwriting. Indeed, how attractive could any security underwriting ever be when the issuer and underwriter have superior information as well as control over the timing, pricing, and stock or bond allocation? The deck is almost always stacked against the buyers."
Seth Klarman, Margin of Safety p.22