303 results for "memo":
Showing 211 - 220 of 303 results
Political Reality
All Rights Reserved Follow us: Memo to: OaktreeClients From: Howard M a rks Re: Political R e a lity My last memo, in May, was on the subject of “Economic Reality.”, I have no interest in writing a memo about Brexit itself., Economic Reality: Choices and Consequences The May memo described the ways in which economics defines and constrains reality in business, investing and everyday life., All Rights Reserved Follow us: Topull this part of the memo together, I can’t overstate my appreciation for the way Thomas Friedman described the UK’s situation in The New York Times on June 29: A major European power, a long-time defender of liberal democracy, pluralism and free markets, falls under the sway of a few cynical politicians who see a chance to exploit public fears of immigration to advance their careers., All Rights Reserved Follow us: * * * I wrote this memo to explain what happened in the UK this year and what I think is happening in the U.S.
The Winds of Change
All Rights Reserved Follow us: Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks R e: The Winds of Change The last 20 months have been a most unusual period, thanks primarily to the pandemic, yet many things feel like they haven’t changed over that time span., Yet there are changes taking place, and they’ll be the subject of this memo., All Rights Reserved Follow us: In my January memo, Something of Value, I described some of the changes technology is making in the business world., But it has to be part of a memo that purports to discuss important changes that are underway., Senior economics consultant Neil Irwin summed up our situation very well in The New York Times on April 16, 2020 (I borrowed this quote for inclusion in my May 2020 memo Uncertainty.): The world economy is an infinitely complicated web of interconnections.
More on Repealing the Laws of Economics
Last September, I wrote a memo titled Shall We Repeal the Laws of Economics?, Rent Control A prime example discussed in my September memo was rent control., On April 9, in my memo Nobody Knows (Yet Again), I guessed at President Trump’s goals in enacting them as follows: support U.S. manufacturing discourage imports encourage exports shrink or eliminate our trade deficit make supply chains more secure through onshoring deter unfair trade practices aimed at the U.S. force other countries to the negotiating table generate revenue for the U.S.
Further Thoughts on Sea Change
In May, I wrote a follow-up memo to Sea Change (December 2022) that was shared exclusively with Oaktree clients., This memo was originally sent to Oaktree clients on May 30, 2023.1 This Time It Really Might Be Different On October 11, 1987, I first came across the saying “this time it’s different.”, As I mentioned in my December memo, the 13 years in question were a difficult, dreary, low-return period for credit investors, including Oaktree., When I got home, I wrote the memo and began to discuss its thesis., October 11, 2023 Endnotes 1 All market data cited in this memo is as of May 30, 2023.
The Happy Medium
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: TheHappy Medium My second general memo to clients was dated April 11, 1991 and imaginatively titled “First Quarter Performance.”, (Emphasis added) Although I’ve learned a great deal in the time since that memo was published, I still think the paragraphs excerpted above capture almost the entire essence of market movements., In November 2001 I wrote a memo on this subject entitled “You Can’t Predict., The memo discussed some of the cycles that affect the investor: The economic cycle evidences moderate fluctuations (although their impact can be profound)., The theme of this memo will be that the cyclical phenomena that so heavily influence our investment outcomes aren’t caused by the operation of institutions or physical laws.
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.
Hedge Funds a Case for Caution
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 : HedgeFunds:ACaseforCaution Onceuponatime there was an asset class., I think they also exhibit many of the traits associated with the venture capital boom described on page one of this memo, including widespread investor participation., A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d magnitude of the hedge fund movement, a memo on the subject has become inevitable., To start bringing this memo to a close, I’ll cite John Moon and Tim Jensen’s apt enumeration of the possible outcomes in our Emerging Markets Fund’s second quarter letter: We have no idea if the hedge fund boom will peter out after several years of mediocre performance, end in another [Long-Term Capital Management] crescendo, or continue until all money is either indexed or run by hedge funds.
Etorre's Wisdom
A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d Memo to: OaktreeClients From: HowardMarks Re: Etorre's Wisdom My memos evoke a wide variety of reactions., This memo will serve as a good example: it was inspired by a ride I took this summer with my son Andrew.
Commemorating 25 Years of Mastering the Market Cycle
.• 1988 marks the peak in S&L failures, part of a slow-moving crisis that would see more than 1,000 institutions fail. 1990 Oaktree • 1990: Howard writes his first investment memo, The Route to Performance , stating that “if you can avoid the losers (and losing years), the winners will take care of themselves.”, In particular, they’re rattled once again in 1998 when prominent hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management melts down. 2000 Oaktree • 2000: In his first memo of the new century, Howard expresses caution regarding the dot-com bubble: “To say [tech stocks] have benefited from a boom of colossal proportions and should be examined very skeptically is something I feel I owe you.”• Starting in late 2004, Oaktree begins to invest in smaller amounts and more cautiously, as its portfolio managers detect “too much trust and too little worry” in the markets.• 2007: Oaktree begins to gear up for an expanded opportunity for distressed debt investing.• Late 2008: In the last 15 weeks of 2008, in the face of widespread fear of a systemic collapse of financial markets, Oaktree invests ~$600 million per week following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.• 2009:
Volatility Leverage Dynamite
The last few years have provided a great demonstration of how dangerous it can be to combine leverage with risky assets, and that’s the subject of this memo., It’ll also pick up on some ideas from my last memo, “The Limits to Negativism.”, My memo “Plan B” on the bailout proposal went out on September 24, and as I lay in bed later that night, I realized that I hadn’t taken one part of it nearly far enough., That’s true as far as it goes, but I’m going to devote this memo to things which could have followed that paragraph., This memo calls on investors to gauge risk and use only appropriate leverage.