The Memo: Risk Revisited Again

Behind the Memo - Sea Change

The Memo: Investing Without People

The Memo: On the Couch

Behind the Memo - Selling Out

The Memo: There They Go Again... Again

Behind The Memo - Bull Market Rhymes

2015-06-08-risk-revisited-again

Also in 2006 I wrote Risk, my first memo devoted entirely to this key subject., This memo adds to what I’ve previously written on the topic., What Risk Really Means In the 2006 memo and in the book, I argued against the purported identity between volatility and risk., While writing the original memo on risk in 2006, an important thought came to me for the first time., Beginning on page 9, you’ll find a section borrowed from a memo I wrote back in 2007.

2015-10-22-inspiration-from-the-world-of-sports

All Rights Reserved Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: Inspiration from the World of Sports I’m constantly intrigued by the parallels between investing and sports., In the latter memo, I listed five ways in which investing is like sports:  It’s competitive – some succeed and some fail, and the distinction is clear, It was Yogi’s passing in late September that inspired this memo., This memo gives me a chance to discuss an invaluable clipping on the subject that I collected nine months ago and have been looking for an occasion to mention., The Victor’s Mindset It often seems that just as I’m completing a memo, a final inspiration pops up.

The Impact of Debt

All Rights Reserved Follow us: Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: The Impact of Debt My partner Bruce Karsh recently supplied me with a newspaper article about chess that inspired me to write a brief memo called The Indispensability of Risk., The response to the memo was favorable, hopefully because people found the content valuable, but quite possibly because it was only three pages long versus the usual ten to twelve., Thus encouraged, I’m following up with another short memo., (Unless otherwise indicated, this memo is the source of the quotations that follow; in all cases, emphasis is in the original.), In that memo, I used a series of simple graphics to show that the lower a company’s debt load is, the greater the decline in fortune it could survive.