Martin Whitman

Marty Whitman, co-chief investment officer of Third Avenue Management, sounds off on credit, distressed debt and regulation.

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Making money now, with Jean-Marie Eveillard, of the First Eagle Fund Global Fund; Marty Whitman, of Third Avenue Management; and Charles Royce, of The Royce Funds

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Few investors in the market today are as bear-market-seasoned and savvy as Marty Whitman, 84-year-old founder of M.J. Whitman LLC and portfolio manager of Third Avenue Value Fund. Like Sam Zell, Leon Black and Eddie Lampert, Whitman's roots are in distressed-company investing.  Whitman says "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's even better than the '70s. Certain common stocks are being given away. It is absolutely a time to plunge in.

Marty Whitman, the octogenarian dean of deep-value investing, sees great bargains to be snapped up from the current stock market meltdown. "It's a great time," enthused the 83-year-old founder of New York-based Third Avenue Management LLC before speaking yesterday at a conference organized by AIC Ltd.

"We can't try to pick the bottom, but it seems to me that there are great values out there now, just like in 1974," the firm's co-chief investment officer said in an interview.

Bill Miller, Martin Whitman and David Dreman, mired in the worst slumps of their careers, are poised once again to trounce the stock market.

"Safe and cheap" is a phrase that's synonymous with the style of legendary investor Marty Whitman and his firm, Third Avenue Management. Whether they're investing at home or overseas, in companies large or small, Whitman and his colleagues won't buy a stock unless it meets those strict criteria.

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s financial stocks such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to struggle, there is plenty of pain to go around. But those taking a real beating include superstar investors who focus on so-called value stocks. Several notable hedge-fund and mutual-fund managers -- including Marty Whitman, Richard Pzena, Bruce Sherman and Wally Weitz, among others -- are down about 20% or more this year in certain funds they run, partly because of heavy dollops of financial shares.

Third Avenue Funds's Second Quarter 2008 Shareholder Letter is out.

Value investor Martin Whitman increased his stake in MBIA Inc. to 10 percent, saying the world's largest bond insurer will be able to keep its AAA rating and resume writing new policies.

Whitman, who has spent more than 50 years profiting from undervalued stocks, said his flagship mutual fund at Third Avenue Management LLC bought 10.6 million MBIA common shares at $12.15 each in February.

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Marty Whitman and Al Zucaro, stock pickers with a knack for buying low, may be dripping in sweat after they snapped up U.S. mortgage insurers that shed more than 40 percent of their value in the past three months.