market folly

Oaktree Capital's Chairman Howard Marks is out with his latest memo entitled "Risk Revisited Again."  In it, he expands upon a previous memo on the subject.

He harps on an important point that risk is not necessarily defined as volatility, as academics would argue.  Instead, Marks points out that instead of fearing volatility, investors fear the possibility of permanent loss of capital.  This is an important distinction.

He also touches on the subject of uncertainty, noting that, "The answer lies in the fact that not being able to know the future doesn't mean we can't deal with it."  He says that the best way to deal with this is to construct a range of possibilities and the probability of each occurring.  

His memo also details the various types of risks and is really worth reading in full below.  The main takeaway here is that he says, "Today I feel it's important to pay more attention to loss prevention than to the pursuit of gain."

Embedded below is Howard Marks' latest memo, Risk Revisited Again:



You can download a .pdf copy here.

If you've missed it, check out Marks' recent memo on liquidity too.