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The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor (Columbia Business School Publishing) Kindle Edition
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"This is that rarity, a useful book."--Warren Buffett
Howard Marks, the chairman and cofounder of Oaktree Capital Management, is renowned for his insightful assessments of market opportunity and risk. After four decades spent ascending to the top of the investment management profession, he is today sought out by the world's leading value investors, and his client memos brim with insightful commentary and a time-tested, fundamental philosophy. Now for the first time, all readers can benefit from Marks's wisdom, concentrated into a single volume that speaks to both the amateur and seasoned investor.
Informed by a lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways.
Marks expounds on such concepts as "second-level thinking," the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Frankly and honestly assessing his own decisions--and occasional missteps--he provides valuable lessons for critical thinking, risk assessment, and investment strategy. Encouraging investors to be "contrarian," Marks wisely judges market cycles and achieves returns through aggressive yet measured action. Which element is the most essential? Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, and each of Marks's subjects proves to be the most important thing.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherColumbia Business School Publishing
- Publication dateMay 1, 2011
- File size1113 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Everyone knows about the anticipation leading up to Warren Buffett's annual shareholder letters. But for a certain Wall Street set, there are equally high expectations for the writings of Howard Marks. -- Peter Lattman ― Wall Street Journal
When I see memos from Howard Marks in my mail, they're the first thing I open and read. I always learn something, and that goes double for his book. -- Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
[A] must-read book. -- David J. Waldron ― Seeking Alpha
If Benjamin Graham's and David Dodd's Securities Analysis was the essential, must have investment book of the end of the 20th century, then Howard Marks's The Most Important Thing is a serious contender for parallel status in the 21st century. -- Stephen E. Roulac ― New York Journal of Books
All investors should read it. -- Alex Dumortier ― The Motley Fool
The Most Important Thing is destined to become an investment classic-it should easily earn its place on every thinking investor's bookshelf. Howard Marks has distilled years of investment wisdom into a short book that is lucid, entertaining, and ultimately profound. -- Joel Greenblatt, Columbia Business School, founder and managing partner of Gotham Capital
Veteran value-investing manager Howard Marks draws on pithy memos he wrote to clients over the years to dispense insightful advice on everything from risk taking to the role of luck. ― Money Magazine
Few books on investing match the high standards set by Howard Marks in The Most Important Thing. It is wise, witty, and laced with historical perspective. If you seek to avoid the pitfalls of investing, you must read this book! -- John C. Bogle, Founder and former CEO, The Vanguard Group
Regular recipients of Howard Marks's investment memos eagerly await their arrival for the essential truths and unique insights they contain. Now the wisdom and experience of this great investor are available to all. The Most Important Thing, Marks's insightful investment philosophy and time-tested approach, is a must read for every investor. -- Seth A. Klarman, president, The Baupost Group
There is, quite simply, an incredible amount of wisdom between the covers of his book and an investor is doing them a disservice if they don't read, and re-read, this book. ― FocusInvestor.com
...many valuable insights into the psychological roots of investors' habitual errors. -- Martin Fridson ― Barron's
If you take an exceptional talent and have them obsess about value investing for several decades, including deep thinking about its very essence with written analysis along the way, you may come up with a book as useful to value investors as this one but don't count on it. -- Jeremy Grantham, cofounder and chief investment strategist, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo
The book is written in a way that both seasoned investors and novices should appreciate. -- Brenda Jubin ― Seeking Alpha
"The Most Important Thing"... offers readers an overview of how to think when considering an investment opportunity, which is quite valuable indeed, considering studies have shown most people tend to make impulsive, indiscriminate investment decisions. ― Syracuse Post-Standard
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B004U5Q1O0
- Publisher : Columbia Business School Publishing (May 1, 2011)
- Publication date : May 1, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 1113 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 196 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #182,727 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #49 in Analysis & Trading Investing Strategies
- #73 in Investing Basics
- #82 in Business Decision-Making
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Howard Marks is chairman and cofounder of Oaktree Capital Management, a
Los Angeles-based investment firm with $80 billion under management. He
holds a Bachelor's Degree in finance from the Wharton School and an MBA
in accounting and marketing from the University of Chicago.
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Customers find the book concise but dense with knowledge and insightful observations about the investment world. They also appreciate the free content. However, some find the reading tedious with all the repetition and the book not as crisp as it could be.
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Customers find the book concise but dense with knowledge, thought-provoking, and essential reading for investors. They also say the author is wise and patient, providing a broad perspective. Readers also mention that the book is riveting and an easy read.
"...There is, quite simply, an incredible amount of wisdom between the covers of his book and an investor is doing them a disservice if they don't read..." Read more
"Concise but dense with knowledge, Howard Marks is as savvy as they come. Definitely recommend this read for all investors." Read more
"...This book is a wonderful guide on how to combine value investing with an understanding of market cycles and investor behaviour...." Read more
"...in learning about Marks’ perspective on investing… he raises numerous thought-provoking ideas that are applicable to all facets of life..." Read more
Customers find the book short and written in simple English.
"...The fact that it's short and written in simple English is a bonus for starters as well...." Read more
"...buy and some great analogies that will stick with you... The chapters are short and you can pick it up anytime." Read more
"Covers a lot of material and ideas in a relatively short book, written by someone that understands the subtleties of value investing." Read more
Customers find the book extremely repetitive and dry. They also say the book is a waste of time and paper, and not as crisp as it could be.
"...However, I soon realized that what I was reading wasn't worth noting down...." Read more
"...Still, a relevant negative is that the text is VERY repetitive. Both within and among chapters...." Read more
"...deeply toughtful insights, but in a somewhat dry, unengaging and repetitive text...." Read more
"Page turner that drives home key fundamentals. The last chapters give a great recap. Easy to read for a beginner investor." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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This new book expands upon the ideas he covered in that original memo. Topics that are covered include: market efficiency, value, risk, investment cycles, contrarianism, finding bargains, patient opportunism, circle of competence, luck, avoiding pitfalls, etc... In short all the topics that a focus investor needs to understand and be able to place, and use, in their own mental models.
What does Mr. Marks want his readers to gain from his book? Here are his own words from the introduction of the book:
"I didn't set out to write a manual for investing. Rather, this book is a statement of my own investment philosophy. I consider it my creed, and in the course of my investment career it has served like a religion. These are the things I believe in, the guideposts that keep me on track. The messages I deliver are the ones I consider the most lasting. I'm confident their relevance will extend beyond today.
You won't find a how-to book here. There's no surefire recipe for investment success. No step-by-step instructions. No valuation formulas containing mathematical constants or fixed ratios - in fact, very few numbers. Just a way to think that might help you make good decisions and, perhaps more important, avoid the pitfalls that ensnare so many.
It's not my goal to simplify investing. In fact, the thing I most want to make clear is just how complex it is. Those who try to simplify investing do their audience a great disservice. I'm going to stick to general thoughts on return, risk and process..."
Mr. Marks has succeeded in his goals in a brilliant manner. There is, quite simply, an incredible amount of wisdom between the covers of his book and an investor is doing them a disservice if they don't read, and re-read, this book. I will be placing it on my shelf right next to the great investments classics of Security Analysis, The Intelligent Investor, the Berkshire Hathaway annual reports, and Margin of Safety. Quite simply I can't recommend it highly enough.
Marks does a terrific job of calling into question the commonly accepted academic assumption: market prices ALWAYS equal intrinsic valuation. The academic community must relax this erroneous assumption. Until that community does so, the profession will continue to face an impossible task. That task is making progress on the core issues facing manking on how markets actually work in the real world.
Empirical evidence to support Mark's incredibly sound concepts would substantiate his arguments. My research fills part of this gap. Combining Marks' concepts with Benoit Mandelbrot's research measurements promises the opportunity to achieve both lower fat-tailed risk and superior investment returns.
Rawley Thomas
President and Co-Founder of LifeCycle Returns
Co-Editor of The Valuation Handbook
The Valuation Handbook: Valuation Techniques from Today's Top Practitioners (Wiley Finance)
and
Co-Author of ValuFocus Investing
ValuFocus Investing: A Cash-Loving Contrarian Way to Invest in Stocks (Wiley Finance)
Top reviews from other countries
And at only 177 pages this "Most Important Thing" is an example that consistent messages (possibly must) be delivered in a short fashion - 95% of what's written about the stocks markets nowadays is a copy-and-paste or a bromide; most is showy and inflated with formulas only a few can understand. Mr Marks effortlessly makes all that literature futile by getting down to the point in every chapter and by not bloating the book with not even one mathematical formula. Those starting in the mysteries of buying and selling shares do have here a wonderful introduction and sound advice at a rate of, at least, one per page. Those out there with investment experience, will still learn something new, without a doubt.
As a coda, I'll recommend three other books that, after Graham's Intelligent Investor and Marks'Most Important Thing, do supply with priceless lessons on shares investment (this is just a short comment, I've reviewed these books individually too):
Peter Lynch: "One up on Wall Street". A lont-time successful fund manager, Mr Lynch is perhaps the most enthusiastic of writers on shares, and manages to transmit this enthusiasm without losing a bit of accuracy. This book is a bit dated. Published in 1989 the "big" companies were then General Elecric, Ford and the big tobacco and these firms are used for the many examples the book contains, but its lessons are as good and useful for the third second half of the XX century as they are now.
John Bogle: "The little book of Common Sense investing". Very short, but packed with sound advice. Also a very successful fund manager, Mr Bogle wrote a pamphlet on staying away from fashions and "trends" - his theory is that following a stock index for decades may sound dull, but it is a guarantee of profit. With very good entries on dividends too.
Philip Fisher: "Common stocks and Uncommon Profits". Even older than the previous two, this minor classic was published in 1960 (one of Mr Fisher's favorite stocks was Motorola, then a transistors maker). It is written in the elegantly sober style of the mid-century and it is full of investment wisdom. As with the previous other two books, it offers no miracle and it states often that investment is a long-term activity.
Fait partie de toute réflexion sérieuse sur l'investissement en bourse.