This is Howard Marks.

“Investing is a funny business. It's really easy to be average. Just buy an index fund. It's really hard to be above average.” -Marks

• Many people seem to attach less importance to lifetime careers and advancement.

he most important adage regarding leverage reminds us to “never forget the six-foot-tall person who drowned crossing the stream that was five feet deep on average.

That one is the fact that as technology and information play a bigger role in business and our lives, labor becomes less necessary

“I don’t write to make investing easy. I write to show how hard it is so that people won’t try tricks that they can’t do.” -Marks

A few quotes... “Establishing and maintaining an unconventional investment profile requires acceptance of uncomfortably idiosyncratic portfolios which frequently appear downright imprudent in the eyes of conventional wisdom.” “Memory – and the resulting prudence – always comes out the... See more

“I believe it is highly possible to improve your long-term results by adjusting your investment position at the extremes of the cycle. Not that often. But at the extremes.” -Marks