Howard Marks
Howard Marks
Investment Philosophy
Howard Marks is the co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management and one of the most thoughtful investors in history. His memos to clients, published since 1990, are required reading across Wall Street and closely followed by Warren Buffett himself. Marks’s investment philosophy centers on understanding market cycles, risk control, and the importance of “second-level thinking.”
He believes that superior returns come not from buying good assets, but from buying assets at good prices. His specialty is credit and distressed debt, where he has consistently generated outsized returns by buying the debt of struggling companies at deep discounts.
Marks’s framework for understanding where we are in the market cycle — and what that implies for risk — is unparalleled. His concept of second-level thinking challenges investors to go beyond the obvious consensus and ask what the market has already priced in, enabling asymmetric positioning in mispriced situations.
Current Portfolio
Source: SEC 13F Filing (Q4 2025)
| Ticker / Security Name | Shares (MM) | Δ Shares (%) | Value (Full $) | Portfolio (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL / Apple Inc. | 1.56 | +9.35% | $424,810,000 | 1.55% |
| ALSN / Allison Transmission Holdings | 0.40 | +164.86% | $205,490,000 | 0.14% |
| AIRR / First Trust RBA Industrial ETF | 0.02 | +157.32% | $161,920,000 | 0.01% |
| AEE / Ameren Corporation | 0.19 | +171.50% | $159,760,000 | 0.07% |
| ADC / Agree Realty Corporation | 0.36 | +130.59% | $133,810,000 | 0.10% |
| AA / Alcoa Corporation | 0.61 | +38.92% | $124,460,000 | 0.12% |
| AEP / American Electric Power | 0.07 | +118.86% | $124,310,000 | 0.03% |
| ALK / Alaska Air Group, Inc. | 0.68 | +121.76% | $124,080,000 | 0.13% |
| ABNB / Airbnb, Inc. | 0.78 | +11,589.60% | $106,340,000 | 0.39% |
| ADSK / Autodesk, Inc. | 0.04 | +120.93% | $105,880,000 | 0.04% |
| ADI / Analog Devices, Inc. | 0.12 | +84.33% | $103,460,000 | 0.12% |
| AAL / American Airlines Group | 1.44 | +33.94% | $82,690,000 | 0.08% |
| ABT / Abbott Laboratories | 0.11 | +75.23% | $63,920,000 | 0.05% |
| ACGL / Arch Capital Group Ltd. | 0.07 | +47.52% | $55,960,000 | 0.03% |
| ACI / Albertsons Companies, Inc. | 1.73 | +56.86% | $53,820,000 | 0.11% |
| ADBE / Adobe Inc. | 0.10 | +8.89% | $36,440,000 | 0.13% |
| AGCO / AGCO Corporation | 0.23 | +38.27% | $34,720,000 | 0.09% |
| AMD / Advanced Micro Devices | 0.12 | +0.64% | $33,220,000 | 0.09% |
| AGO / Assured Guaranty Ltd. | 0.23 | +24.31% | $31,970,000 | 0.08% |
| AMAT / Applied Materials, Inc. | 0.15 | +3.57% | $30,060,000 | 0.14% |
| ACN / Accenture plc | 0.09 | +8.54% | $25,220,000 | 0.09% |
| A / Agilent Technologies, Inc. | 0.16 | +269.12% | $21,500,000 | 0.08% |
| ABBV / AbbVie Inc. | 0.09 | +77.45% | $19,650,000 | 0.07% |
| AFG / American Financial Group | 0.14 | +15.51% | $19,500,000 | 0.07% |
| ADI / Analog Devices, Inc. | 0.12 | +84.33% | $103,460,000 | 0.12% |
| ADM / Archer-Daniels-Midland | 0.46 | +19.89% | $15,370,000 | 0.10% |
| AAP / Advance Auto Parts, Inc. | 0.17 | +23.38% | $6,850,000 | 0.03% |
| AHL / Aspen Insurance Holdings | 0.01 | NEW | $1,900,000 | 0.00% |
| AER / AerCap Holdings N.V. | 0.00 | NEW | $1,500,000 | 0.00% |
| ADUS / Addus HomeCare | 0.00 | NEW | $800,000 | 0.00% |
| BAX / Baxter International Inc. | 0.18 | -70.89% | $3,470,000 | 0.01% |
| ADP / Automatic Data Processing | 0.10 | -26.62% | $25,880,000 | 0.09% |
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