306 results for "memo":
Showing 191 - 200 of 306 results
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.
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.
I Beg to Differ
The Essential Difference In 2006, I wrote a memo called Dare to Be Great., Many years have passed since I wrote that memo, and the investing world has gotten a lot more sophisticated, but the message conveyed by the matrix and the accompanying explanation remains unchanged., Talk about simple – in the memo, I reduced the issue to a single sentence: “This just in: You can’t take the same actions as everyone else and expect to outperform.”, Thus, in 2014, I followed up on 2006’s Dare to Be Great with a memo creatively titled Dare to Be Great II., And yet, as I mentioned in my January memo, Selling Out, the S&P 500 has returned about 10½% a year on average over that century-plus.
How Does an Inefficient Market Get That Way
Well, this memo was occasioned by an article in "Pensions & Investments" reporting consultant SEI's recommendation that pension plan sponsors invest 10% to 30% of their fixed income portfolios in high yield bonds.
Us and Them
A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d Memo to: OaktreeClients From: Howard M a rks Re: UsandThem As a kid, I – and probably you – viewed the world in simple terms., In my memo “Returns and How They Get That Way” (November 2002), I gave examples from a brilliant dichotomization propounded by Nicholas Taleeb., May 7, 2004 P.s.: As I wrote this memo, one thing pained me, and I want to address it: I found myself constantly writing “he,” even though I absolutely do not think investing skill is gender-related., So please bear with me; I’m really an equal opportunity memo writer
Go Figure
All Rights Reserved Follow us: Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: Go Figure!, That behavior calls to mind my January memo, “On the Couch,” on the subject of the market’s irrationality., In that memo, I included a cartoon showing a newscaster saying, “Everything that was good for the market yesterday was no good for it today.”, * * * This is the last memo on politics for a while, I hope (as may you).
Dare to Be Great II
All Rights Reserved Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: Dareto Be Great II In September 2006, I wrote a memo entitled Dare to Be Great, with suggestions on how institutional investors might approach the goal of achieving superior investment results., Most importantly for the purposes of this memo, how will you define success, and what risks will you take to achieve it?, In the memo I mentioned my favorite fortune cookie: “the cautious seldom err or write great poetry.”, This goes all the way back to the beginning of this memo, and each organization’s need to establish its creed., Some of this comes from my last memo, on the role of luck
Plan B
A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d Memo to: OaktreeClients From: Howard M a r k s R e : Plan B O v e r t h e l a s t d e c a d e o r t w o , P l a n A c o n s i s t e d o f r e l ying on the free market to maximize economic growth and efficiency (as described in “The Aviary,” May 2008)., * * * The trouble with memo writing at times like these is that there’s always more.
Cockroaches in the Coal Mine
As I mentioned in my memo Gimme Credit in March, the thing people have asked me about most often over the last few years is private credit., As I pointed out in my memo What Does the Market Know?, Investors’ risk tolerance grows, and they tend to focus less on due diligence and more on bidding aggressively for deals (see my memo The Race to the Bottom, February 2007)., One I haven’t mentioned since my memo The Long View in 2009 is the “bezzle,” a concept Galbraith introduced in his book The Great Crash 1929.
Time for Thinking
My memo writing followed suit: one a week for the first six weeks, and a total of ten over 18 weeks., After starting off at that rapid clip, I haven’t issued a memo in more than a month – which might seem like a long interval until you realize the norm in recent years has been only one per quarter., All Rights Reserved Follow us: the end of this memo for postscript in which I discuss the significance of that reported 32.9% decline.), And in a memo on this subject in June of last year, I wrote, “in areas like technology and digital business models, I’d bet things will be different more than the 20% of the time Templeton cited.”, However, thinking about the results in connection with writing this memo raised some questions: • I had immediately assumed Q2 GDP was down $1.81 trillion, or 32.9%, from Q2 of last year.