The Most Important Thing Illuminated: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor (Columbia Business School Publishing) Hardcover – January 15, 2013

If you're looking for tricks of the market trade, this is not the book for you. There are no secret formulas or ingenious knowledge of stock trading in the book. If that's what you're looking for, head elsewhere.What this book is about is you, the investor, and the hidden relationship between your emotional makeup and the ebbs and flows of the market. Though rational thinking seems to be the key ingredient for making smart trades, it's the emotional extremes of fear and greed which can supplant the rational thinker. It's normal and natural, but it can be a killer when it comes to investing.Now, add in the effect of market uncertainty, which is the very nature of the stock market, leading investors to resort to what Marks calls "the herd mentality." The point is that it's difficult to truly be an investor of one's own being without being swayed by the emotional swells of the day and following what everyone else is doing.The one market factor which Marks emphasizes is price-to-risk ratio. That's the key; finding investments that are "bargains," where there is enough of a cushion in the investment that, if there is a downturn, the pain may be less felt. To use his own baseball metaphor, he's about getting lots of hits and less about getting home runs.I've actually read this book twice, and though there is redundancy in each chapter, one gets the feeling that Marks does this to keep pounding the message through. There are adages throughout the book which also make the same point and support his points. Each chapter builds on the next. What I really appreciated is his discussion of decision-making in a world of uncertainty.Finally, I personally like his writing style, straightforward with ease and skill that reiterates without frustrating the reader. There's more under the surface of this book; it requires personal reflection of our own cases where we have erred in the process of making decisions. It's a book I highly recommend.

This is a book about the philosophy and, more importantly, the psychology of investing. This is huge because it address most non purely financial or fundamental reasons for swings in the equity markets. Despite my decades of experience as an amateur investor, I learned a lot from reading this book. Primary lesson: make sure you buy at lower price than the assets intrinsic value so that there is a margin of safety during the bad times. Another lesson is to have realistic expectations sand to avoid greed and the fear of missing out. Great read.

Nice book!, Howard Marks explains in a very easy way how Oaktree works in a market full of humans (that means full of errors), and how he consider an individual investor or even institutions should invest. There's not exact formulas in this book (only a single equation is presented in the entire manuscript), this book is entirely philosophical and it doesn't even tell you that there's only one way to invest, it's a book that makes you think about how you behave and reason about your decisions when investing. It's a book that makes you think about yourself.Some people find this book a bit tedious because Marks explanations arrive to the same conclusions over and over again, but I find this logical and very valuable actually, even if the answer is a simple and honest "I don't know" or "Is impossible". We need to understand that investing isn't exact and the best we can do is minimize risk and most of the time play safe.I don't give this book 5 stars because this versión (the "Illuminated" one) doesn't bring much into the table compared to the normal one, the comments of the other famous investors aren't that good, much of them are a simple "that's true" or "well said"... something that don't add value to the book to be fair. It's better to buy the normal version of the book.

Each year, there are hundreds of books written on the subject of stock market investing. Most of them are not worth the investment of one's time or money. Every once in a while, a new classic hits the market. This book is one of those new classics on investment writing.Howard Marks, Chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, writes clearly and persuasively about the importance of risk avoidance when investing in stocks. He emphatically states his belief that risk avoidance by buying at a good value is the key to success. He then spends the rest of the book telling the reader the 18 most important things to consider when buying stocks. His discussion of investor psychology is worth the price of the book by itself. Everything else is a bonus.I had been meaning to read this book for a year or so. When I learned that an annotated edition, with comments from some leading value investors, I grabbed it. I took my time reading it, as there is so much great information within. The final chapter, in which Marks pulls all 18 important things together, is now something I intend to re-read several times a year, like I do with Chapters 8 and 20 of Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor.Highly recommended.

Howard Marks is a legendary investor and he has taken the time and energy to illuminate others as to how he views his world. We would and should take note from the wisdom of others who have gone before us. Howard Marks is one of those individuals.