Investing
The Most Important Thing
2011 · 200 pages · Hardcover
A collection of Marks’s ideas about risk, value, cycles, and investment judgment.
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← People & perspectives
Official biography & work ↗
Perimeter People / Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Oaktree Capital Management
Howard Marks
Howard Marks co-founded Oaktree in 1995 and serves as co-chair, helping guide the firm’s investment philosophy and major strategic decisions. Earlier, he led distressed-debt, high-yield, and convertible-securities teams at TCW after a long career at Citicorp Investment Management. His memos examine risk, market cycles, investor psychology, and the relationship between price and value. He also serves as a director of Brookfield Corporation and chairs Brookfield’s Investment Solutions Group.
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AffiliationOaktree Capital ManagementCo-Founder and Co-ChairAffiliationBrookfield CorporationDirector; Chair, Investment Solutions Group
Original perspectives
Letters, conversations & public records.
Letter
What’s Going on in Private Credit? ↗
Marks’s April 2026 memo on the development and changing role of credit markets.
Letter
AI Hurtles Ahead ↗
His February 2026 memo examining artificial intelligence and its investment implications.
Letter
Sea Change ↗
The December 2022 memo on interest rates and a changing investment environment.
Letter
The memo archive ↗
Oaktree’s official chronological collection of Marks’s memos.
From connected public feeds
In the conversation
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Books
Newsletters & writing
Investing
Memos from Howard Marks
Oaktree’s public investment memos examine risk, market cycles and investor psychology, using Howard Marks’s experience to frame difficult decisions under uncertainty for investors.
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Sources & further reading
Profile checked September 18, 2026. Editorial notes are Perimeter’s interpretation.