Warren Buffett
Peer investor & public endorser — 'When I see memos from Howard Marks, they're always the first thing I open and read.'
Biography
Warren Buffett (born 1930) is the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, widely regarded as the greatest investor of the 20th century. He is also the most frequently referenced person in Howard Marks' entire 35-year memo corpus — appearing in 71 of 164 memos with 232 total mentions, more than any other individual.
The relationship between Marks and Buffett is one of genuine mutual respect across complementary domains. It became publicly visible when Buffett wrote: "When I see memos from Howard Marks in my inbox, they're always the first thing I open and read." That endorsement, given voluntarily by the most famous investor in the world, transformed the visibility of Marks' writing from specialist credit circles to the global investment community.
Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway from a failing textile manufacturer into one of the world's largest companies by applying Benjamin Graham's value investing framework — updated through Charlie Munger's influence to favor high-quality businesses over statistically cheap ones. His 60-year track record of roughly 20% annual compounding remains unmatched in scale and duration.
Marks and Buffett share an intellectual DNA: both trained in the Graham tradition, both believe that temperament is more important than intellect in investing, both distrust macro forecasts, and both see Mr. Market's mood swings as opportunities rather than signals.
Key Stories
The Endorsement That Changed Everything — Buffett's public praise of Marks' memos was not a one-time comment. He has repeated it in multiple interviews over decades, directing tens of thousands of readers to the Oaktree memo corpus. For Marks, who was known primarily in credit circles, the endorsement was transformative. In the Howard Marks knowledge base, Buffett's name appears more than twice as often as the next most-cited person — a direct reflection of how frequently Marks invokes the Buffett framework to validate or contrast his own ideas.
The Shared Graham Heritage — Both Buffett and Marks trace their intellectual lineage directly to Benjamin Graham. Buffett studied under Graham at Columbia and worked at Graham-Newman; Marks was shaped by Graham's texts during his finance education. The divergence is instructive: Buffett extended Graham into high-quality businesses (influenced by Munger); Marks extended Graham into credit markets. The common root produces strikingly similar conclusions about temperament, margin of safety, and the exploitation of market psychology.
"Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy" — Buffett's most famous investment maxim appears directly in Marks' memos more than any other single outside quote. It appears in the depths of the GFC (when Marks is arguing for aggressive deployment), in the frothy periods (when Marks is arguing for caution), and as the conceptual anchor of the entire pendulum framework. Marks treats this maxim not as a slogan but as a precise analytical instruction: positioning should be the inverse of consensus sentiment.
The Temperament Argument — Marks repeatedly cites Buffett's observation that investment success correlates more strongly with temperament than with intellect. The ability to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy — to act on analysis rather than sentiment at precisely the moment when sentiment is most intense — is the decisive psychological differentiator. Marks uses this observation to ground his investor psychology framework: the challenge is not knowing what to do; it is doing it when the psychological pressure to do the opposite is greatest.
Impact on Marks' Work
The Contrarian Framework: Buffett's example — buying during the 1987 crash, the S&L crisis, the 1990 recession — is the archetype Marks invokes for contrarian action. Knowing what Buffett did during crises past is, for Marks, evidence that the contrarian approach works at scale, over time, across multiple market environments.
The Mr. Market Metaphor: Buffett popularized Graham's Mr. Market allegory in his shareholder letters. Marks adopts this metaphor wholesale, using Mr. Market to describe the credit market's irrational oscillation between credit boom and bust — and the investment opportunities that the oscillation creates for unconstrained buyers.
On Macroeconomic Forecasting: Buffett famously does not spend time on macro forecasts — does not try to predict interest rates, GDP, or political outcomes. He invests at the security level. Marks cites this stance repeatedly as validation of Oaktree's own macro agnosticism: if the world's greatest investor does not find macro forecasting useful, its utility is questionable.
Capital Allocation: Buffett's thinking on capital allocation — deploying cash where it earns the highest risk-adjusted return, returning it to shareholders when no such opportunity exists — directly informs how Marks thinks about the cycle-dependent deployment of credit capital.
Key Passages From Marks' Memos
"I repeat Warren's injunction for the simple reason that you just can't put it any better. When others are acting imprudently, making the world a riskier place, our caution level should rise in response."
— The Race Is On (2013)
"Buffett's approach, like that of Williams, rewards patience, selectivity and a superior understanding of the underlying process. These are some of the things Oaktree likes to emphasize."
— What's Your Game Plan? (2003)
"Warren Buffett exemplifies the kind of person who can step out of the crowd. Perhaps his example can make a few more people stop worrying about losing money and start worrying about missing out on gains."
— Plan B (2008)
"Warren Buffett has evolved from a man buying cheap stocks in his home office to an international celebrity, with 50,000 investors from around the world making the pilgrimage to Omaha each year for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting."
— Something of Value (2021)
Cross-Reference
The Buffett Letters Knowledge Base on Chian covers 60 years of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters — fully cross-referenced by concept, company, and people.
Referenced In
Source: Howard Marks Knowledge Base — Oaktree Capital Management memos 1990–2025