Howard Marks
Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management. On 6 shows, 8 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounderexecutiveauthor@HowardMarksBook ↗LinkedIn ↗oaktreecapital.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Howard Marks co-founded Oaktree Capital Management in 1995, building it into a global leader in alternative investments, distressed debt, and high-yield credit. He is widely recognized for his regular investment memos, as well as bestselling books such as The Most Important Thing and Mastering the Market Cycle.
6shows
8appearances
160statements
32resolved
24supported
5contradicted
75%fully supported
133said about them ↓ Everything Howard Marks said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Marks: Psychological barriers prevent most investors from buying during market panics
“The bad times create an opening for active management. But it's still hard, and not many people can do it well. Why do bad times create an opening? Because panic drives down, let's say, stock prices. But the same panic causes most people to panic, which means …”
Marks: Average insight into AI will not provide an investment edge
“So if your excitement level, and by that I mean your insight level, is average, you don't have an edge. Your, and you get involved in AI, your performance will be average. You will go along with the tide if it works. You'll be schmeiced if it doesn't work.”
Howard Marks: Readily Available Present Data Cannot Create Above-Average Returns
“Readily available, quantitative information about the present cannot hold the key to success. Because everybody has it. Success in investing is doing better than others. Investing is a funny field because it's really easy to be average, and it's really hard to…”
Howard Marks: Contrarian thinking must be different and better than consensus
“Second level thinking or contrarian thinking is not just different from the herd. That's not enough. It has to be different from the herd and better.”
Marks: No Asset Is Too Good to Overprice or Too Bad to Buy Cheap
“As time passed, I rounded that into a belief that there is no asset so good that it can't become overpriced and dangerous, and very few assets which are so bad that if it's cheap enough, it can't be a good idea.”
Marks: LBOs rebranded to private equity due to poor past results
“The leveraged buyout business actually had to reinvent itself, and you don't hear the term LBO business anymore. Now you hear private equity. Well, why did they change the name? Because nobody would do it if you called it leveraged buyouts because the results …”
Marks: Hedge funds stopped performing once they grew too large
“So you had the growth of the alternative investment business, and they tried hedge funds, but when the hedge funds got too big, they stopped performing, most of them, and then people fastened on private equity.”
Marks: In fixed income, avoiding losers makes winners take care of themselves
“If we avoid the losers, the winners take care of themselves. That's our official motto. And that's the right way to think about fixed income.”
Marks: Private equity funds hold roughly $3T in unsold portfolio companies
“And by the way, the private equity funds, I think they're sitting on about three trillion dollars worth of companies that they have to sell. To pay off the investors.”
Marks: High-yield debt succeeds through aware, analyzable, and diversified risk
“How can they insure people's lives when they know they're all gonna die? And the answer is, number one, it's risk they're aware of... Number two, it's risk you can analyze... Number three, it's risk you can diversify... Number four, it's risk they're well paid…”
Howard Marks: Top drug analysts can only pick Merck versus Lilly 50% accurately
“You can take the best drug analyst in the world and sit him down on the first day of every year and ask him which is going to perform better, Merck or Lilly. And my guess is he'll get it right half the time.”
Howard Marks: Investor edge requires better data analysis, qualitative judgment, or forecasting
“If everybody has all the company data about today and the means to massage it, How do you get a knowledge advantage? And the answer is you have to either somehow do a better job of massaging the current data, which is challenging, or you have to be better at m…”
Howard Marks: Investors should rebrand the selling decision as 'unbuying'
“You know, it all comes down to maybe we can think better about the selling decision if we rebrand it and we call it the decision to unbuy. The thought process should be the opposite of the buying decision and not some chicken stuff about being afraid to lose.”
Howard Marks: Macro predictions shouldn't drive investment decisions
“Macro predictions are very hard to make, and I don't think either of us bases our investment decisions on macro forecasts. That's not a way to have a good batting average.”
Howard Marks: Economists are now disregarding the Phillips Curve
“So now I think the Phillips curve is being disregarded.”
Howard Marks: Strong economic recovery will follow COVID-19 herd immunity
“I personally believe that when we get to herd immunity, And when the number of cases falls, you know, radically, by which I mean, I guess, you know, a few hundred a day or so, I think that we'll have a very good recovery in the economy and in employment.”
Marks: Oaktree's distressed debt returns won't match past crisis levels
“We think our returns will be very attractive relative to the low overall level of interest rates, but nothing like in the past.”
Marks: Market trouble occurs when investors believe no price too high
“When people start saying no price too high, then the world tends to get in trouble, as they have several times in my life.”
Howard Marks: 2019 market conditions left economy vulnerable to pandemic shock
“And I think that the market conditions in 19, twenty-nineteen and the prior years made us vulnerable to an economic shock like the pandemic produced.”
Marks: High-Yield Bonds Have Been Central to 40 Years of Finance
“In 78, I was asked to start a high-yield bond fund, and high-yield bonds have been the, shall we say, epicenter, although it's an advised word today, for almost everything that's happened, interestingly, in finance in the last 40 years.”
Howard Marks rejects Modern Monetary Theory's view that national debt doesn't matter
“And there's a theory called modern monetary theory that it doesn't matter, which I find that hard to accept.”
Howard Marks: Above-Average Returns Require Resisting Crowd Psychology
“What that means, Harry, is that if you operate emotionally or psychologically, like the average person, you will have average results, which for the most part means buying high and selling low. In order to be an above average investor among all the various req…”
Howard Marks: Successful Investing Requires Operating Without Foreknowledge
“The important misconception is always the same, which is that it's possible sitting here to know what the future holds. We have to invest despite the absence of foreknowledge, not in reliance of foreknowledge.”
Marks: Asset prices reflect fundamentals combined with investor optimism
“If I could know only one thing, I would think I'd want to know how much optimism there is in the price. You know, prices are not the result of investment fundamentals. They're a result of the combination of fundamentals and psychology. And, you know, the highe…”
The other half of the tape: Howard Marks's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 127 times in 59 episodes across the shows. 6 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 22Bill Gurley 18Ian Charles 9Morgan Housel 8Mike Maples 7Jon Harris 7Ted Seides 5Nathan Latka 5
Statements about Howard Marks, by other people (6)
Volatility is genuine risk because it induces investors to abandon their plans
“The smartest of the smart guys say that volatility is not risk. And I strongly, strongly disagree. Because if you're, what you're really trying to do is achieve your goals in life, and the more volatile an investment is, Makes it more likely that you're going …”
Venture investors should aim to quickly become consensus and right
“You want that to be true when you make the investment, but you don't want to be very non-consensus for long. You want to quickly be consensus and right. You just don't want anybody to see it until you make that bet. But like, you don't want to make that bet an…”
Friedman: Oaktree Outpaced Early Canyon by Targeting Institutional Asset Allocation Boxes
“I remember when our good friends, Bruce Karsh and Howard Marks left Trust Company in the West to start Oak Tree and almost instantly had more capital than we did, or at least as much, and we had started a few years earlier, and part of it was that they underst…”
Batnick: Keynes wrote the best chapter on investing in history
“And he wrote, in my opinion, the best chapter ever on investing. I don't know if it's 11 or 12 in general theory, but everything that you hear from Howard Marks and all these guys really started with Keynes in this chapter.”
Warren Buffett reads Howard Marks's memos before anything else
“It was Warren Buffett himself that said once, when I see memos from Howard Marks in my mail, they're the first thing I open and read.”
Gurley sought macro advice from Howard Marks and Stan Druckenmiller
“Funny story, about two or three years ago, when interest rates were heading into unprecedented territory, I told my partners I needed to talk to some macro experts, and I did everything I could to find my way to Howard and Stan Druckenmiller, and I was thrille…”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 58
Capital Allocators 50
the Knowledge Project 9
Top Founders 5
Acquired 5
2026 6 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
- Mental Models That Change How You Think | Bill Gurley
- Mitchell Green: Why 50% of VCs Should Not Exist · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Anthropic's Fable Banned by US Government | Wix & Adobe Hit All-Time Lows | Mistral Raising at $20BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Why You Need a $1B Fund To Do Series A | SpaceX at $2TRN & Data Centers in Space | Groq's $20BN Deal · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2026, scene by scene →
2025 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2024 18 mentions in 7 episodes 3 per episode
- Morgan Housel – Same as Ever (EP.359)
- 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
- David Salem - Investment Wisdom from the Owner's Box (EP.409)
- Best of 2024: The Blueprint for a Transformative New Year
- Mike Maples Jr. - Identifying Startup Pattern Breakers (EP.406)
- Michael Eisenberg: How China Could Overtake the US in the AI Race | E1167 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Morgan Housel: Get Rich, Stay Rich
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2023 7 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
- Is the VC Model Broken? Jason Lemkin, Mike Maples, Eric Paley & Harry Stebbings Debate | E1062 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Scooter Braun on Being Enough, Insecurity, Wealth, Investing, Fame, Marriage and Much More | E1002 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Charlie Munger (Audio) · Acquired
- Mike Maples: Lessons from SVB; Crisis Management Tips; USD's Status as the Reserve Currency | E993 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- John-Austin Saviano – Emerging Managers and IC Governance (Capital Allocators, EP.294)
- every mention in 2023, scene by scene →
2022 17 mentions in 12 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: 13 of the Great Investing Minds on When to Pay Up vs When To Remain Disciplined and Walk Because the Price is too High: The Ultimate Guide to Price Sensitivity
- 20VC: Former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney on Why "Only the Niche Will Survive" in Crypto, How Governments and Central Banks Retain Control in a World of Decentralised Finance & The Winners and Losers in Crypto Exchanges and NFTs
- Benchmark Part I · Acquired
- Enron · Acquired
- Colin Smith and Farouk Miah - Empty Rooms: Investing in Africa (Capital Allocators, EP. 279)
- Julio Vasconcellos: Scaling to $100M and 1,200 Employees and then Cratering | 20VC #928 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Sarah Samuels – Framework and Rigor at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP.264)
- Josh Friedman – Master Class in Credit Investing at Canyon (Capital Allocators, EP.263)
- 4 more episodes that year, every mention in 2022 →
2021 26 mentions in 10 episodes 3 per episode
- Ian Charles & Doc O'Connor – Investing in Sports Teams at Arctos Sports Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.225)
- 20VC: Bill Gurley and Michael Eisenberg on The First Signs of an Impending Bust, What Happens with a Market Crash, How Do Public Markets Impact Private Valuations & The Biggest Lessons from 20 Years Investing in Venture
- How this SaaS Raised $2.4m Crowdfunding at $10m Valuation
- Friends Reunion – Five Allocators Riff on Investing (Capital Allocators, EP.215)
- Ted with Patrick O'Shaughnessy – Lessons from the World's Elite Money Managers (Capital Allocators, EP.184)
- Not Boring (with Packy McCormick) - Extended Cut · Acquired
- Eli Casdin – Casdin Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.02)
- 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on The Single Question That Defines The Art of Early Stage Venture, Marketing Timing Risk, Why The Oversupply of Capital Is Good & His Biggest Lessons from 12 Years On The New Relic Board
- 2 more episodes that year, every mention in 2021 →
2020 10 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Portfolio Construction, Optimising SPVs, Opportunity Investing "Between Rounds", Being Distribution-Centric Over Product-Centric and Capital Concentration Within Funds With Sumeet Gajri, Chief Strategy Officer @ Carta
- 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds
- 20VC: How To Assess Risk and Value Creation, Why It Would Be Better If VCs Had Smaller Portfolios & How To Optimise Internal Decision-Making with Misha Esipov, Founder & CEO @ Nova Credit
- Greg Fleming – Building and Running Rockefeller Capital Management (Capital Allocators, EP.125)
- 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
- 20VC: Why Now Is The Hardest Time To Raise an Institutional Pre-Seed in the Last Decade, What To Do When The Founder and VC Interests Do Not Align & The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds with Gaurav Jain, Founder & Managing Partner @ Afore Capital
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
2019 27 mentions in 8 episodes 3 per episode
- 20VC: Ash Fontana on The 5 Core Characteristics That Make Data Valuable, What VCs Can Learn From Italian Craftsmen and Howard Marks & The Importance of Vertical Integration In Scaling Today
- 20VC: Benchmark's Bill Gurley on 5 Traits Benchmark Look For When Adding To The Partnership, Why The Abundance of Capital Is Today's Biggest Challenge in VC & The Right Way To Think About Market Size When Assessing Opportunities
- #67 Jim Collins: Keeping the Flywheel in Motion
- Tim Recker - Concentration at the James Irvine Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.100)
- Jon Harris – Investing in People at AIM (Capital Allocators, EP.105)
- 1431 CRM for Speakers Passes $30k in MRR
- Ash Williams – Florida SBA's Reigning Chief (Capital Allocator, EP.104)
- Ron Biscardi – Putting Hedge Funds in Context (Capital Allocators, EP.83)
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
2018 9 mentions in 5 episodes 2 per episode
- James Williams – Curating The Getty's Assets (Capital Allocators, EP.50)
- Mark Baumgartner – Luck, Risk and Uncertainty at the Institute for Advanced Study (Capital Allocators, EP.77)
- Brian Portnoy – From Complex to Simple (Capital Allocators, EP.57)
- Tom Bushey – Launching a Hedge Fund (Capital Allocators EP.78)
- Michael Batnick - The Best Investors and Their Biggest Mistakes (Capital Allocators, EP.71)
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Howard's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 3 | 50 | 86% 12/14 | full record on 20VC → |
 WTFLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 31 | 50% 2/4 | full record on WTF is with Nikhil Kamath → |
| KNOWLEDGE PROJECTLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 26 | 100% 4/4 | full record on the Knowledge Project → |
| CAPITAL ALLOCATORSLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 24 | 80% 4/5 | full record on Capital Allocators → |
| ACQUIREDLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 18 | 0% 0/1 | full record on Acquired → |
| TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 11 | 50% 2/4 | full record on Top Founders → |