Howard Marks Books: Recommended Reading List

In his masterpiece, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor (Columbia Business School Publishing), Howard Marks mentions some books that had a great influence on his way of thinking. In the introduction to the book, Marks’ states that these books “each did a great deal to shape my thinking.: Marks is the CEO of Oaktree; an$80billion distressed value asset management company. Readers can learn more about Marks on our resource page.

He mentions the following three books:

Winning the Loser’s Game by Charles Ellis. Another great book recommended by many others. The book talks about how hard it is to beat the market, and provides

A Short History of Financial Euphoria by John Kenneth Galbraith. We have not read this, but heard great things. It is about the history of investment bubbles.

Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb. We also HIGHLY recommend The Black Swan.

Of course we assume Howard Marks would recommend his own book;  The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor. The book was endorsed by Seth Klarman, Warren Bufett, Jeremy Grantham, and John Bogle among others.

Finally Marks does not specify any further books but states in the introduction “I’ve been extremely fortunate to learn directly from some outstanding investors”, his list includes the following people:

Warren Buffett, whose reading list can be found – https://www.valuewalk.com/books/warren-buffetts-recommendations/

Charlie Munger, whose reading list can be found – https://www.valuewalk.com/charlie-mungers-list/

Seth Klarman, whose reading list can be found – https://www.valuewalk.com/books/seth-klarmans-recommended/.

Joel Greenblatt, who is a master author himself, and has recommended other books, which readers can find https://www.valuewalk.com/books/joel-greenblatts-recommended-reading-list/.

John Kenneth Galbraith, as mentioned above.

Jim Grant, whose writings are revered by many other great investors.

Jack Bogle, who has written many fantastic books on asset allocation.

Peter Bernstein, another great author on on finance.

Jeremy Grantham of GMO, who has yet to author a book.

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