Profile & Investment Philosophy

Howard Marks, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management and author of the widely-read investment memos collected in "The Most Important Thing," is the premier authority on credit investing and cycle analysis. His investment philosophy is built on two foundational ideas: understanding where we are in the market cycle, and investing with an acute awareness of risk that most investors underestimate. Marks argues that superior investment returns come not from predicting the future but from recognizing the present — specifically, understanding the psychology and positioning of market participants and gauging whether assets are priced for perfection or for distress. His framework for second-level thinking — moving beyond obvious conclusions to consider what others are missing — has become a cornerstone of sophisticated investment analysis. Oaktree specializes in distressed debt, high-yield bonds, and credit instruments across the risk spectrum, providing capital to companies that have fallen out of favor with mainstream lenders. Marks views credit as offering the most reliable risk-adjusted returns over time when bought at the right point in the cycle. He is known for his 1999 and 2000 memos warning about tech bubble excess, and for his prescient 2007 memo "The Race to the Bottom" which forecast the imminent credit crisis. His post-2008 writing has been consistently cautionary about the consequences of prolonged monetary stimulus on asset pricing. Marks' philosophical contribution to investing is the insight that risk is not volatility but the possibility of permanent loss — and that the best investors manage risk first, and returns follow.

Latest SEC Form 13F filing. Total portfolio value: $192B AUM. Holdings: 32 positions.