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There are huge advantages for an individual to get into a position where you make a few great investments and just sit back and wait: You're paying…

Let me mention another model. Of course, Gillette and Coke make fairly lowpriced items and have a tremendous marketing advantage all over the world.…

Finally, I'd like to once again talk about investment management. That is a funny business because on a net basis, the whole investment management…

As I meet with clients and prospects, I repeatedly hear myself say, “the most important thing is x.” And then ten minutes later it’s, “the most…

Ignoring cycles and extrapolating trends is one of the most dangerous things an investor can do. People often act as if companies that are doing well…

At Oaktree we try to sit on our hands. We don’t go out with a “buy list”; rather, we wait for the phone to ring (while we do our research and…

We always have placed great emphasis on preventing turnover, and the results are visible – in the very small number of senior professionals who…

To be able to do all of these things simultaneously, it helps to have a set of guiding principles and a well-thought-out approach. With these you can…

The reading materials for a meeting of a corporate board on which I sit – and what turned out to be an eight-hour meeting of the audit committee…

The bottom line is that investment risk comes in many forms. Many risks matter to some investors but not to others, and they may make a given…

It’s by bearing risk when we’re well paid to do so – and especially by taking risks toward which others are averse in the extreme – that we strive to…

Cycles are inevitable . Every once in a while, an up-or down-leg goes on for a long time and/or to a great extreme and people start to say "this time…

Of course, at the extreme the process is ready to be reversed again. Because the competition to make loans or investments is low, high returns can be…

In making investments, it has become my habit to worry less about the economic future – which I'm sure I can't know much about – than I do about…

The exigencies of the corporate life cycle usually render ultra-high growth rates unsustainable. Regardless of the improbability, however,…

Having said that, I want to point out emphatically that many of those who complained about the excessive market valuations – including me – started…

The operators of racetracks take a dim view of bettors who engage in “past-posting”: trying to get a bet down after the race is over (and the…

If you make an investment in 2012, you’ll know in 2014 whether you lost money (and how much), but you won’t know whether it was a risky investment –…

Backgammon players are usually quite happy to make a move that will enable them to win unless the opponent rolls twelve, since only one combination…

In September 2006, I wrote a memo entitled Dare to Be Great, with suggestions on how institutional investors might approach the goal of achieving…

Dare to Be Different Here’s a line from Dare to Be Great: “This just in: you can’t take the same actions as everyone else and expect to outperform.”…

Of course it’s not that easy and clear-cut, but I think that’s the general situation. If your behavior and that of your managers is conventional, you…

Or as Charlie Munger told me, “It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid.” In other words, anyone who thinks it can be easy to…

Most “agents” – those who invest the money of others – will benefit little from bold decisions that work but will suffer greatly from bold…

Fear of looking bad can be particularly debilitating to an investor, client or manager. This is because of how hard it is to consistently make…

Third, even well-founded decisions that eventually turn out to be right are unlikely to do so promptly. This is because not only are future events…

Investors who aspire to superior performance have to live with this reality. Unconventional behavior is the only road to superior investment results,…

Confidence is generally defined as belief in one’s ability to choose a course of action and execute on it. Although it’s not part of the…

What will happen when it no longer does? Will rates rise? How much? Will the effect of higher rates on the cost of financing purchases and…

Or will high-volume money printing to make it easier to repay the debt bring on chronic inflation? (The mere fact that intelligent people worry…

When an economist tells them that growing the nation’s debt over the past 12 years from $6 trillion to $16 trillion is not a problem, and that…