Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor (Columbia Business School Publishing)

Top positive review

An excellent common sense investing book a lot of information on how to get better

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 21, 2023

This is a very underrated book. There is excellent advice on almost every page. The author Howard Marks has also received annotations by other great investors throughout the book that emphasize the points and give different perspectives. The content of the book can be applied to any kind of investment not just stocks, bonds, but anything to do with investing our funds for the future. Truly wish I had read this book years ago. I will definitely read it a second time.

Top critical review

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Louis-David D.

Book

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 31, 2022

Book arrived in very bad shape. I bought a new book and this book was definitely used.

2,834 total ratings, 308 with reviews

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From Canada

Michael Kurkdjian

An excellent common sense investing book a lot of information on how to get better

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 21, 2023

Verified Purchase

Helpful

Richard Garand

not for everyone, but if you know enough and skip half the book there are good reminders

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

In the first few chapters I nearly stopped reading this book. It starts out with some generic advice and typical investment industry nonsense, like saying investors who only get market returns have failed (if doing better than 90% of people is failing...) or active managers who stay out of a bull market will have smaller losses in a downturn (no, just no, this doesn't happen).

But then it actually got better. The book mixes general commentary with bits from letters going back several decades.

Some of the commentary does actually go deeper than the platitudes and give you useful reference points. For example one part shows how investors may stretch the limits of risk in unusual assets even while they are avoiding the stock market, so you won't see a general euphoria. Another idea in the book that I realized some time ago but almost no one says is that investors commonly think higher risk investments will deliver higher returns, but if that was true they wouldn't actually be higher risk. Sometimes you just lose.

The parts from past letters are interesting because you can compare the way of thinking with what was happening at the time. Some show timing that's too good to be true, like a letter in October 2008 that said it was a good time to buy. Others are a bit early, like other letters from 2004 - 2006 that call out excessive risk in the market. All of them are interesting because we know what ended up happening.

It would have been even better to see specific instances from past letters that turned out to be wrong. There is some discussion about how the right call may have the wrong result and vice versa, and the book doesn't really go to great lengths to make it seem like Marks is always right, but there could be good lessons in showing more of the other side.

To the uninformed investor this book could deliver the wrong lessons, or a false sense of certainty about the future. It does warn against that, but that warning is more likely to be received in the right way if you have read a lot about investing already. And the basic lessons are repeated in hundreds of other books.

If you have that frame of reference you should know to question everything you read, no matter who it comes from (Warren Buffett's annual letters have very few flaws, but this is not on the same level). From that perspective, if you're willing to read through some material that is a waste of time, there are some valuable reminders in here that will make you question your thinking in a good way.

Those are good enough to give it 4 stars, even though it can be misleading to beginners and slow for more experienced readers. It could have been written better for one of those audiences instead of falling in the middle and serving both poorly. It is unfortunately easy to take the wrong lessons from the book.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

marvin stutman

On time del

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

Books for reading

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Hubert Fansworth

A must read for finance professional

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

A must read. In my top 10 investing book.
Great complement to Howard Marks memos.

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Mario Paquette

Très bon livre

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 12, 2020

Très bon livre

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 31, 2022

Verified Purchase

Book arrived in very bad shape. I bought a new book and this book was definitely used.

Helpful

Richard Johnson

A Common Sense Read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 22, 2017

Verified Purchase

I found myself highlighting most everything in this book....it is jam packed with wisdom. Marks is an experienced common sense investor, which may be more rare than many people think. Read this book.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Love it

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

Good book, delivery quickly

Helpful

Omolara Williams

Simple, easy-to-understand lessons....clearly laid out.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

Mind-opening lessons about the importance of understanding risk for the seasoned and novice investor alike. I'll be reading this one again.

One person found this helpful

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Rob Mills

*common wisdom for thoughtful investors

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book is full of generally common sentiments shared among investors. It's reasonable commentary and certainly won't hurt anybody. I read it in short order and then gave it to my friend's father that likes to ask me for investment advice.

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