92 Insightful Quotes from The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks. One of the best value portfolio management books ever written. One of the best value portfolio management books ever written.
...Howard Marks delivers his commentary in a style that has been described as “insightful, direct, homespun, expert and sharply pointed”. His objective in writing The Most Important Thing was to provide a book that would lay out his investment philosophy in a manner that would be beneficial to the average investor.
His approach is to lay out The Most Important Thing Is….. in 20 Chapters. Each is a building block to successful investing. Together they create a “solid wall” in which each piece is essential “guideposts” that keep investors focused on the most important things for successful portfolio management.
...There is a debate between two approaches among investors: qualitative vs. quantitative. In reality, every investor adopts at least a little of both approaches; but may emphasize one or the other. The qualitative approach concentrates on the quality of the company. Emphasis is put on the company’s products, services, management, competitors, etc. A quantitative approach concentrates on the income statements, balance sheets, and cash flows, and analyzes the relationship between price and intrinsic value .
...Our discussion of these 7 investment concepts will provide you with a different thought process or approach to investing. Successful value portfolio management requires a different way of thinking. Make the effort to be above average.
...A comprehensive review and summary of Deep Value -Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle For Control of “Losing” Corporations, by Tobias E. Carlisle.
Failing businesses, poor management, and unpredictability often provide the most promising investment opportunities. Deep value offers the best risk/reward ratio for investors willing to go against intuition and what is normally accepted by the investment crowd.
Working capital is an important measure of a company’s operating liquidity. The working capital ratio (a.k.a current ratio) is an indicator of the ability of the company to meet its short term obligations.
Working capital calculations such as Net Current Asset Value (NCAV) and Net Net Working Capital (NNWC) provide valuable metrics with which to measure against price in order to identify bargain stocks.
...While preparing for The Intelligent Investor Book Review I underlined the great quotes from the book. They provide an interesting and valuable perspective of, what may be, the greatest investing book ever written. I have included the page number for each quote for easy reference.
...Benjamin Graham’s objective was to provide an investment policy book for the ordinary investor. He succeeded in putting seemingly hard concepts into terms that could be understood and, more importantly, implemented by the average investor.
The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, is probably the most important and influential value investing book ever written. Warren Buffet described it as “by far the best book ever written on investing”.
One of the most important and basic rules is to keep the activities of investment and speculation totally separate. Intelligent investing involves: 1) analysis of the fundamental soundness of a business 2) a calculated plan to prevent a severe loss and 3) the pursuit of a reasonable return. Speculation involves basing decisions on the market price, hoping that someone will pay more than you at a later date.
...The defensive investor should understand the difference between prediction (qualitative approach) and protection (quantitative or statistical approach). The risky approach is to try and predict or anticipate the future. The protection approach measures the proportion or ratios between price and relevant statistics (i.e. earnings, dividends, assets, debt, etc.).
...The Enterprising Investor has the time and experience (or proper guidance) in investing to expand the possible universe of opportunities beyond conservative investments. It is an active approach that requires constant attention and monitoring.
...If every investor did their research and only bought stocks with a margin of safety below the intrinsic value of the company, the market would be efficient and fairly stable. But we know that this isn’t true. The market swings wildly from day to day and takes large swings in valuation over periods of euphoria and pessimism.
Graham used a parable with an imaginary investor named Mr. Market to illustrate how an intelligent investor should take advantage of market fluctuations. This is a parable about greed and fear, price and value, and how the intelligent investor will react.
...In investment selection, it is most accurate to be able to make judgments based on past performance. The greater the amount of assumptions that have to be made about the future, the greater the possibility of misjudgment or error. Graham is adamant about not putting any importance in short term earnings. The more an analyst relies on short term results, the greater the risk, and the more due diligence that is required.
...Graham urged shareholders to take an active role in being owners of the company. He thought management with good results should be rewarded, and management with poor results should be questioned and challenged.
He was particularly adamant about shareholders demanding a fair portion of their earnings returned in dividends. This is because much of the time companies squander past earnings. Just because management does a good job with current operations doesn’t mean they know the best use of excess company capital.
...The margin of safety for an investment is the difference between the real or fundamental value and the price you pay. The goal of the value investor is pay less (hopefully, much less) than the real value. Ben Graham called margin of safety “the secret of sound investment” and “the central concept of investment”. He also devoted a whole chapter to the concept and, I am confident, placed it last because it is the most important.
...In value investing, one of the most important and difficult aspects of stock selection is determining whether you have found a real value investment or a value trap. The father of value investing, Benjamin Graham, spent a considerable amount of time trying to differentiate between true value investments and value traps.
...The average investor makes decisions that cause them to underperform average investment returns. The difference between average investment returns and average investor returns is often called the behavior gap.
The following value strategies will provide a framework for making your asset allocation investment decisions and avoiding many of the mistakes that create the behavior gap.
Your investment analysis should include high probability value strategies that improve returns and lower portfolio volatility. The focus needs to be on strategies that are long term value oriented rather than on instant gratification.
...These are 47 of my favorite value investing quotes, sayings, and money proverbs from the wisest value investors. Together they offer a mountain of wisdom hard to duplicate in any one place.
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As founder of the Arbor Investment Planner my passion is to educate and empower the individual investors to manage their own investment portfolio.
The Arbor Investment Planner is a value investment portfolio management guide for those individual investors who choose to manage their own money. I focus on ideas and concepts important to the self directed investor; but put special emphasis on risk management, value investing strategies, and proper asset allocation and diversification.
- Ken Faulkenberry
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