Ruminating on Asset Allocation

All Rights Reserved Follow us: Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: Ruminating on Asset Allocation When I travel to see clients and spend entire days discussing investing and the markets, memo ideas often pop up., B efore I proceed, I want to mention that, from time to time in this memo, I’ll say “generally,” “usually,” or “everything else being equal.”, For the purposes of this memo, however, it might help to think of it as “fixed outcome” investing., The Essential Choice At the outset of this memo, I listed some of the decisions that comprise the asset allocation process., So, in a memo in 2006, I took the same line and superimposed on it some bell-shaped curves representing probability distributions turned on their side.

2004-03-16-hey-steward!!

A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d Memo to: OaktreeClients From: HowardMarks Re: Hey,Steward!!, My October memo “The Feeling’s Mutual” argued that late trading wasn’t the worst thing going on in the mutual fund industry., [Before I go further, I want to do something I failed to do in October: make clear that neither my earlier memo nor this one is intended as a universal indictment of the mutual fund industry.

2012-01-10-what-can-we-do-for-you

Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: What Can We Do For You?, Oaktree on Market Timing This memo provides an ideal opportunity for me to discuss Oaktree’s position on these matters and address some potential inconsistencies., Thoughts on Portfolio Positioning I’m going to use the context of this memo to set out a way of thinking about portfolio structuring that I’ve developed recently, and to show how I would apply it today.

Gimme Credit

Ever since interest rates got up off the floor in 2022, there’s been increased interest in credit, and that’s why I’m devoting this memo to it., I’ve written so much about this that I’m not going to belabor it further (see my memo Ruminating on Asset Allocation, October 2024), but I’m always available to talk., Credit Versus Equities I’ve written about equity valuations – primarily referencing the Standard & Poor’s 500 – as recently as this January in my memo On Bubble Watch.

Behind the Memo – The Impact of Debt with Howard Marks and Morgan Housel

2013-03-13-the-outlook-for-equities

Memo to: OaktreeClients From: Howard Marks Re: The Outlook for Equities It doesn‟t take much to get me started on a memo., Valuing Stocks Today The underlying reason it took so little from FierceFinance to get me going on this memo is that I had a lot of pent-up thoughts about equities and their current valuation., I‟m not going to drag you through it again, but I will copy over parts of that memo from a year ago: . . . people have been throwing in the towel and selling stocks., Those low expectations, when combined with modest fundamental and psychological improvement, gave the S&P 500 a return of about 13% over the year since that memo was written.

Behind the Memo - Easy Money with Howard Marks and Edward Chancellor

Ruminating on Asset Allocation

When I travel to see clients and spend entire days discussing investing and the markets, memo ideas often pop up., Before I proceed, I want to mention that, from time to time in this memo, I’ll say “generally,” “usually,” or “everything else being equal.”, For the purposes of this memo, however, it might help to think of it as “fixed outcome” investing., The Essential Choice At the outset of this memo, I listed some of the decisions that comprise the asset allocation process., So, in a memo in 2006, I took the same line and superimposed on it some bell-shaped curves representing probability distributions turned on their side.

2002-11-11-returns-and-how-they-get-that-way

 Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: Returns and How They Get That Way "Where do babies come from?", The Role of Luck To end this memo on returns, I want to spend a few pages discussing the part played by randomness (or luck or chance).

2011-09-07-whats-behind-the-downturn

Memo to: OaktreeClients From: Howard M a r k s R e : What’sBehindtheDownturn?, Thus I decided to take the occasion of my summer vacation to write a memo parsing the recent events and touching on the outlook.