HOWARD MARKS: Value Investors Ignoring The Macro Are Being 'Unrealistic And Hubristic'
In an interview with John Mihaljevic of Beyond Proxy, Marks said that value investors need to do more than just identify a stock that is cheap but has intrinsic value.
That is just "hubristic". From Beyond Proxy:
“If you are a value investor and you invest whenever you find a stock which is selling for one-third less than your estimate of intrinsic value, and you say, I don’t care about the macro, nor what I call the temperature of the market, then you are acting as if the world is always the same and the desirability of making investments is always the same. But the world changes radically, and sometimes the investing world is highly hospitable (when the prices are depressed) and sometimes it is very hostile (when prices are elevated).
“I guess what you are saying is we just look at the micro; we look at them one stock at a time; we buy them whenever they are cheap. I can’t argue with that. On the other hand, it is much easier to make money when the world is depressed, because when it stops being depressed, it’s like a compressed spring that comes back.
"…I think it is unrealistic and maybe hubristic to say, ‘I don’t care about what is going on in the world. I know a cheap stock when I see one.’ If you don’t follow the pendulum and understand the cycle, then that implies that you always invest as much money as aggressively. That doesn’t make any sense to me. I have been around too long to think that a good investment is always equally good all the time regardless of the climate."
Marks said it is important for investors to not just be "aggressive" but sometimes, "play defense" too.
Watch the entire interview at Beyond Proxy: