Howard Marks
Oaktree Capital
Profile & Investment Philosophy
Howard Marks and Oaktree Capital pivoted toward energy infrastructure in Q1 2026, establishing a major new position in Petrobras. The firm maintains its dominance in distressed debt and opportunistic credit, with top equity holdings in TORM PLC and Chesapeake Energy. Marks continues to emphasize risk control and cycle awareness as the keys to long-term performance.
Track Record
Marks co-founded Oaktree Capital in 1995 after running the high-yield desk at TCW. Oaktree grew into one of the world's largest alternative-credit managers, with roughly $200 billion in AUM across distressed debt, high yield, private credit and real estate, and was partially acquired by Brookfield in 2019. Its flagship distressed-debt funds have delivered net IRRs in the mid-teens across multiple cycles, with the post-2001 and post-2008 vintages especially strong. Marks' investor memos, written since 1990, are required reading inside the industry; Warren Buffett has publicly endorsed them. He is a Wharton and Booth graduate and author of ‚The Most Important Thing' and ‚Mastering the Market Cycle'.
Signature Trades
Current Strategy (2026)
Marks does not run a 13F-driven equity book; Oaktree's exposure is concentrated in private credit, distressed debt and real estate. His 2025-2026 memos have hammered one theme: the ‚sea change' in interest rates from a 40-year tailwind to a structural headwind, making credit the most attractive risk-adjusted asset class for the first time in over a decade. Oaktree is leaning heavily into senior direct lending at low-double-digit yields, opportunistic real-estate credit where regional banks have retreated, and is staging dry powder for a possible default cycle as the maturity wall in leveraged loans approaches. He has been cautious on equities, arguing the index-level multiple is not pricing the new cost of capital. The base case: clip credit coupons, get paid to wait, deploy aggressively if defaults rise.
BMI Counter-Take
Marks is the most useful macro voice in the industry precisely because he does not predict — he calibrates. The ‚sea change' framing is correct and underpriced by retail: bonds and private credit now compete seriously with equities for the first time since 2008. What we would push back on is the implied bearishness on equities. The same higher-for-longer regime that boosts credit yields also keeps marginal capital expensive, which is bullish for incumbent mega-cap free-cash-flow machines. The right read is not ‚own credit, sell stocks' — it is ‚stop overpaying for narrative growth, demand cash today'. The discipline transfers cleanly.
Current Portfolio
LATEST 13F 2026-03-31Latest SEC Form 13F filing. Total portfolio value: $6.28 B. Holdings: 142 positions.
| Security | Type | Shares | Δ vs Prev | Value ($) | Portfolio % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Torm PLC | Common | 23.8 M | -9.8% | $675 M | 10.7 % |
| Expand Energy Corp. | Common | 5.24 M | +3.5% | $575 M | 9.15 % |
| Invesco Qqq Trust Series 1 | Put | 570,000 | ★ NEW | $329 M | 5.23 % |
| Anglogold Ashanti PLC | Common | 3.22 M | -16.2% | $314 M | 4.99 % |
| Garrett Motion Inc. | Common | 14.6 M | -14.6% | $265 M | 4.22 % |
| State Street Spdr S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF | Put | 1.00 M | ★ NEW | $182 M | 2.89 % |
| Telephone And Data Systems Inc. | Common | 4.29 M | +16.4% | $181 M | 2.88 % |
| Viper Energy Inc. | Common | 3.79 M | -39.7% | $178 M | 2.83 % |
| Core Scientific Inc. | Common | 9.40 M | +12.6% | $140 M | 2.23 % |
| Sunopta Inc. | Common | 20.7 M | — | $134 M | 2.14 % |
SOURCE: SEC Form 13F (2026-05-15). BMI Smart Money Tracker.