📖Howard Marks

Patient Opportunism

🌿 Intermediate★★★★★

Wait patiently for the best bargains.

💬

Patient opportunism — waiting for bargains — is often your best strategy. The market eventually offers great opportunities to those who wait.

— The Most Important Thing,2011

🏠 Everyday Analogy

A process is like a pilot checklist: discipline prevents simple mistakes when pressure rises and keeps outcomes more repeatable.

📖 Core Interpretation

Howard Marks advocates a repeatable process: define criteria, execute consistently, and review decisions against evidence. Process quality drives outcome consistency.
💎 Key Insight:Time and patience create the best buying opportunities.

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❓ Why It Matters

Without process, there is no reliable feedback loop. Structured execution and review improve decision quality over time.

🎯 How to Practice

Run a decision loop of research, thesis, execution, and post-mortem; document assumptions and update playbooks with evidence, not hindsight bias.

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Having opinions without execution criteria
Reviewing outcomes but not decisions
Abandoning rules during volatility spikes

📚 Case Studies

1
Dot-Com Bubble Peak (2000)
Tech stocks soared on unrealistic growth expectations, pushing valuations to extremes before the bubble burst.
✨ Outcome:Investors who recognized the late-cycle euphoria reduced exposure, preserved capital, and later bought quality tech at distressed prices.
2
Global Financial Crisis (2008)
Credit excesses and housing leverage culminated in a severe market crash and frozen credit markets.
✨ Outcome:Investors who maintained liquidity and a long-term view bought high-quality assets at deep discounts, benefiting from the subsequent recovery.

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