The Most Important Thing

Uncommon Sense for The Thoughtful Investor

By: Howard Marks

Narrated by: John FitzGibbon

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2012 Howard Marks (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"This is that rarity, a useful book." (Warren Buffett)

Repetitive things worth repeating

Marks had a lot of solid insight - nothing mind-blowing - but what he chooses to focus on as essential make a lot of sense and will highly impact how I invest. Other listeners complained of the repetitiveness, but unless I'm just a slow thinker, I needed that time and rephrasing to help me incorporate that into my mental model of investing. I would read it again in a couple years to make sure I stick to these fundamentals.

Oak tree investment philosophy

Great nuggets of his investment philosophy. The book is broken down cleanly. The overarching concept is simple, second level thinking. It runs short of being a manifesto but is a clear payout of Howard’s views. It’s not a preachy book like many investment books. Instead he sets out here’s what I believe here’s why I believe it.

Five Star Book, two Star Audiobook

Would you consider the audio edition of The Most Important Thing to be better than the print version?

No, not at all. The narrater is a great speaker. But he sounds like Kramer on the Seinfeld commercial where he was imitating the MoviePhone guy. It's not entirely his fault. I've watched hours of interviews with Howard Mark's and he tells his stories so great, with a great Queens accent. This is one of the greatest investing books ever written, but the way it's read widdle's it down to absolute boredom.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Most Important Thing?

Mark's adages...which are funner and more memorable to hear from Mark's himself.

Any additional comments?

The print version of this is amazing. All of his video interviews are absolutely entertaining and insightful. I may keep this just because it's a great book and the information is valuable to me.

Good not great. Worth the listen

The book is a little repetitive, as many books are. It is drawn from Howard marks fund letters over the years. It gives excellent insight into the generalities of investing, which anyone who is risking their money should know. It gives little to nothing in terms of how to perform the tasks.

Annoying Narration

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Despite the annoying narration this book is worth listening to because the author constantly reinforces the main theme: Don't lose money! No specific strategies here. Rather this money manager offers his investment philosophy that governs his day to day decisions. His track record speaks for itself.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Have a different narrator.

What three words best describe John FitzGibbon’s voice?

Annoying, annoying and annoying.

What did you take away from The Most Important Thing that you can apply to your work?

More important than how to make money is knowing how not to lose it.

Lessons from a Master Investor

What made the experience of listening to The Most Important Thing the most enjoyable?

Aside from the fact that I fundamentally agree with Howard Marks approach to investment, the explanations used were very easy to follow... it is written in a way that a novice can understand, with insights that an experienced investor would find very useful. I have found few that can do this as well as Mr. Marks has been able to (others would include Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, and Joel Greenblatt are some others).

Any additional comments?

I would highly recommend this book to novice and experienced investor alike... One of the keys to success in most fields has been to "stand on the shoulders of giants". Howard Marks is a Master Investor with a keen ability to communicate... this book compiles and discusses his memos in a way that will assist you to "stand on the shoulders of this giant"

not much detail

Too much general, not enough specifics. he says buy at less than intrinsic value, then doesn't discuss how he determined intrinsic value.

As advertised

The author states in the introduction that this work should provoke thoughts that the reader has not encountered before. This was very true for me. I've read many books on investing in the ideas expressed in this one I have not encountered before. Strongly recommend reading this work.

Loved it!

Would be nice if there are different voices to choose from. The voice on this book sometimes became monotonous and I would have preferred a woman's voice.

A must read for any person

Very insightful, not only for investors, but a lot of wisdom for everyone.
I highly recommend this book!

Definitely a good audio book for investors

If someone is into investment should definitely buy this audio books
It covers all difficulty investor faces during their investment period. And describe how luck, right timing & aggressive in market can decide fate of investors.
It also discusses psychology of trends (with analogy of pendulum) awesome audiobook for investors.

Note:I listen this audiobook at 0.85× since 1x was too fast for me.
You can miss the context if you lose attention even for seconds while listening.

Overall great book.

So good I finished it in one go

Content of the book is very good, didn't feel overly technical, more like just listening to someone tell a series of stories to illustrate a point. Narration of this book is excellent, the voice was engaging and combined with the content I suddenly found my days plans cancelled so I didn't have to stop.

The material does start to repeat itself a little midway through the book, but I still found it interesting, it just reinforced earlier passages.

The most important thing is this book

Nobody really knows what tomorrow will bring, so rather than predicting this books tells you to watch your tomorrow and be prepared. Excellent analysis and examples used throughout the book.
Wonderfully narrated too John FitzGibbon.

Well structured and insightful

I rarely give a 5 star rating but this book truly deserves it. Loads of wisdom and thoughts provoking insights in it. Also easy to follow as an audio book and well narrated. One of the few to be re-listened at some point in the future.

Insightful

Offers a great understanding to invemnet philosophy, the audio is clear and maintains interest throughout. Reckomended to anyone with an interest In investment

Value investing -

Nice and great concepts - listen to before investing - good for loss aversion. Nice ideas around determining how much optimism is factored into the price - good for review when investing. No particularly new concepts for me

Thought Provoking

Poses more questions than gives answers. You need to listen to it at least once every six months.

An esential tool in any investors strategy

Essential reading for any investor beginner or experienced. Very well narrated on a complex subject, with thought provoking methods

Priceless knowledge. No tiene precio.

A must have in your audiobook library.
Indispensable en cualquier colección de audiolibros que se precie.

Had my attention throughout

Will listen to this one again. It is very matter of fact, and highly rated.