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anon's avatar

very much look forward to this series. although a fan of marks, i rarely listen anymore because of frustrations over his comments on risk :

a. it is critical item #1 and every oaktree employee is responsible

B. you cannot measure risk before or even after the fact\event

so wtf does oaktree actually do!? marks never tell us!

am also interested in hearing if you measure portfolio risk as anything other than some combination of short/med/long term correlation.

finally, the dice throw analogies are a little confusing because it seems you eventually imply that 'exact probabilities' also cannot be known beforehand.

thx.

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John Galt's avatar

On the diversifying dice throws point, i think this makes sense given the expected return for the 1/6 chance of winning is 6x. But if that return is anything below 6x, across many, many throws, wouldn't the expected return fall below 0? Is that right? So it being risk-less across a diversified strategy really depends on that expected return when you hit.

Secondly, on the averaging of cash flows and thereby using the risk-free rate, wouldn't there still be risk involved? I understand that the average of lumpy cash flows produces the constant .166 / year, but isn't there still risk embedded within that .166? After all, there are individual companies behind the .166 of aggregate cash flow, and any number of factors can change the cash flow for a given company in a given period away from the average, right? Since these aren't bonds the .166 isn't contractual, so while it might be the average over a period of time, there is no guarantee that is the return you will get each year. I would think about that like the 6-7% average return on stocks historically. While that's true, you often rarely get that return year over year. Curious to hear your thoughts. Thanks for this post - super interesting!

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