Monday, September 22, 2014

Leon Cooperman, Howard Marks on Investment Strategy

Link to video: Leon Cooperman, Howard Marks on Investment Strategy
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Leon Cooperman, chairman and chief executive officer Omega Advisors Inc., and Howard Marks, chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, talk about investment strategy and the outlook for financial markets. Bloomberg's Stephanie Ruhle moderates the discussion at the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit in New York.
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Related Howard Marks quote from his most recent memo:
It's the job of investors to strike a proper balance between offense and defense, and between worrying about losing money and worrying about missing opportunity.Today I feel it's important to pay more attention to loss prevention than to the pursuit of gain. For the last three years Oaktree's mantra has been "move forward, but with caution." At this time, in reiterating that mantra, I would increase the emphasis on those last three words: "but with caution." 
Economic and company fundamentals in the U.S. are fine today, and asset prices – while full – don't seem to be at bubble levels. But when undemanding capital markets and a low level of risk aversion combine to encourage investors to engage in risky practices, something usually goes wrong eventually. Although I have no idea what could make the day of reckoning come sooner rather than later, I don't think it's too early to take today's carefree market conditions into consideration. What I do know is that those conditions are creating a degree of risk for which there is no commensurate risk premium. We have to behave accordingly.