Finance
Co-founder of Oaktree Capital, author of the Memos
Howard Marks pioneered distressed debt investing, co-founding Oaktree Capital Management, one of the world's largest credit-focused asset managers.
“Second-level thinking.”
10 Courses · 60 Lessons · 8 Hours
Biography
He grew up in Queens in a modest family, studied at Wharton where he discovered Zen philosophy and efficient market theory, then earned his MBA at Chicago. He joined Citibank as an equity analyst and witnessed the failure of the “Nifty Fifty” era: those who bought the best companies at the wrong price still lost everything.
He was serendipitously moved to high-yield bonds and distressed debt—then considered junk—and discovered an inefficient, uncrowded market: it became his niche for the subsequent decades.
In 1995, he founded Oaktree Capital with five colleagues. It grew to become the world's largest investor in distressed debt, with over 200 billion under management, and raised record funds precisely in 2008 to buy while everyone else was selling.
The “second-level thinking”: not asking if a company is good, but if it's better than the price already discounts. Studying the cycle, gauging the market's temperature, remembering that “you can't predict, but you can prepare.” Risk control, not return, is the true business.
His memos to investors, written since 1990, are required reading on Wall Street—Buffett declares he opens them first. He made an entire asset class respectable and taught a language for discussing risk.
His library
10 Courses · 60 Lessons · 8 Hours. Select a course to see every lesson inside it.
New to Howard? Start here
Grasp Marks' foundational insights into cycles, risk, and second-level thinking.
Beginner
6 lessons
The Elusive Alpha in Market Efficiency
8 min readFirst-Level vs. Second-Level Thinking: A Primer
8 min readWhy Markets Cycle and How to See It
8 min readThe Perils and Promises of Contrarianism
8 min readUnderstanding the Role of Luck and Skill
8 min readInvesting When Things Are Too Good
8 min readTiptico courses are independent educational analyses based on publicly available information, writings, interviews, speeches and documented decisions. The individuals featured are not instructors, employees, partners, sponsors or endorsers of Tiptico unless explicitly stated.
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