The billionaire investor reflected on his 50-year career and spoke about his approach to investing, in a conversation with the founder of the Milken Institute.
«Today, I would emphasize avoiding losing money over missing opportunities,» Howard Marks, chairman, Oaktree Capital Management, said at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore on Thursday.
Given the state of the global economy and risks on the horizon, investors must determine where the balance should be between the risk of losing money and the risk of missing out on opportunities, before deciding if they would change the balance, and if so, whether to do that immediately, Marks explained in a conversation with Michael Milken, the founder of the Milken Institute.
«But I'm a bond guy, and that's just me,» he added.
Early Career
«By investing in the worst companies in America, I made money for my clients significantly and steadily,» Marks said about his early career and contrarian approach to investing and long-term view at a time when people poured money into blue-chip stocks of American companies, many of which are no longer around.
He said high-yield bonds, which picked up speed on the late 1970s and early 1980s, significantly changed America. «The world's a very different place. Now, small companies can get the money they need.»
Economic Progress
As one of the world's most successful investors, Marks was unequivocal in his support for capitalism but conceded that it has shortcomings that have created inequality and given rise to populism. One way is to address this is to «grow the [wealth] pie,» rather than redistributive measures that take wealth away from its creators, he said.
«What we have in society today is that capitalism… produces winners and losers. And we don't want to see losers suffer,» he said, adding that the role of governments today should be to cushion the failures and that the best cushions for society are stable political systems and the rule of law.
Marks founded Oaktree in 1995 with five other partners. As of June 2019, the firm has $120 billion in assets under management.
