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1.27 mi | ASHBURN 20147
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Audible sample Sample
The Most Important Thing MP3 CD – Unabridged, March 8, 2016
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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 listeners 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. Using 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
- PublisherAudible Studios on Brilliance Audio
- Publication dateMarch 8, 2016
- Dimensions6.75 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
- ISBN-10151138347X
- ISBN-13978-1511383479
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Get to know this book
What's it about?
This book is about the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career.Popular highlight
“Experience is what you got when you didn’t get what you wanted.”545 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
All investors can’t beat the market since, collectively, they are the market.412 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
The discipline that is most important is not accounting or economics, but psychology.350 Kindle readers highlighted this
Product details
- Publisher : Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (March 8, 2016)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 151138347X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1511383479
- Item Weight : 3.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.75 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,990,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,074 in Business Decision Making
- #6,009 in Introduction to Investing
- #6,259 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving
- 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.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
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.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
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.