The Anatomy of a Rally

All Rights Reserved Follow us: Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: The Anatomy of a Rally The background is well known to all, The possible reasons for the markets’ recovery are many and, as I write this memo, the list is growing as people find more things to take positively., Especially given their appeal to my cautious bias, I’ve done so plenty in recent memos., In my memo, On the Couch (January 2016), I wrote that: That’s one of the crazy things: in the real world, things generally fluctuate between “pretty good” and “not so hot.”, This memorandum is being made available for educational purposes only and should not be used for any other purpose.

The Memo: You Bet!

The Memo: Investing Without People

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

The Indispensability of Risk

That’s why I’ve written a memo comparing investing to sports in each of the four decades I’ve been writing memos and one connecting investing and card playing in 2020., Few people know that Bruce is a chess player, and I hadn’t thought about this fact for years, but the article provided a good reminder and moved me to dash off this memo., Relevant lessons from sports (included in past memos) are easily accessed and also very helpful: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky, NHL Hall of Famer “You have to give yourself a chance to fail.” – Kenny “The Jet” Smith, two-time NBA champion I’ll sum up with a paragraph from my memo of last September, Fewer Losers, or More Winners?, April 17, 2024 Legal Information and Disclosures This memorandum expresses the views of the author as of the date indicated and such views are subject to change without notice., This memorandum is being made available for educational purposes only and should not be used for any other purpose.

2014-04-08-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

2000-01-02-bubble

A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d Memo to: OaktreeClients From: HowardMarks Re: bubble.com Thebook"DevilTaketheHindmost" by Edward Chancellor does an excellent job of chronicling the history of financial speculation., * * * I will devote the rest of this memo to what certainly seems to me to be another market bubble., A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d Legal Information and Disclosures This memorandum expresses the views of the author as of the date indicated and such views are subject to change without notice., This memorandum is being made available for educational purposes only and should not be used for any other purpose., This memorandum, including the information contained herein, may not be copied, reproduced, republished, or posted in whole or in part, in any form without the prior written consent of Oaktree.

2012-02-15-assessing-performance-records-a-case-study

Memo to: OaktreeClients From: Howard M a r k s R e : AssessingPerformance Records – A Case Study What are the non-negotiable requirements for accurately assessing investment performance?, in my memo Pigweed, from December 7, 2006, Legal Information and Disclosures This memorandum expresses the views of the author as of the date indicated and such views are subject to change without notice., This memorandum is being made available for educational purposes only and should not be used for any other purpose., This memorandum, including the information contained herein, may not be copied, reproduced, republished, or posted in whole or in part, in any form without the prior written consent of Oaktree

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., 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., Legal Information and Disclosures This memorandum expresses the views of the author as of the date indicated and such views are subject to change without notice., This memorandum is being made available for educational purposes only and should not be used for any other purpose.

2013-11-26-the-race-is-on

Memo to: Oaktree Clients From: Howard Marks Re: The Race Is On I’ve written a lot of memos to clients over the last 24 years – well over a hundred., This memo is about the cycle’s first half: the manic swing toward accommodativeness., It’s primarily these latter elements – rather than securities merely getting pricier – with which this memo is concerned., Examples from the Media My preparation for writing these memos often includes amassing media citations around a central theme., This memorandum is being made available for educational purposes only and should not be used for any other purpose.