"This is that rarity, a useful book."--Warren Buffett Howard Marks, the chairman and cofounder of Oaktree Capital Management, is renowned for his insightful assessments of market opportunity and risk. After four decades spent ascending to the top of the investment management profession, he is today sought out by the world's leading value investors, and his client memos brim with insightful commentary and a time-tested, fundamental philosophy. Now for the first time, all readers can benefit from Marks's wisdom, concentrated into a single volume that speaks to both the amateur and seasoned investor. Informed by a lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways. Marks expounds on such concepts as "second-level thinking," the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Frankly and honestly assessing his own decisions--and occasional missteps--he provides valuable lessons for critical thinking, risk assessment, and investment strategy. Encouraging investors to be "contrarian," Marks wisely judges market cycles and achieves returns through aggressive yet measured action. Which element is the most essential? Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, and each of Marks's subjects proves to be the most important thing.

Nancy and Ned visit the prestigious Basson College to see their friend Linc Sheffield. But when they arrive, they discover Linc lying unconscious after a mysterious accident, and Nancy and Ned become embroiled in a case of bogus degrees, blackmail, and murder!

The Harvey-Award-Winning collection of the critically acclaimed webcomic series is re-loaded and re-mastered. Bounty-hunter Matthew Macgregor investigates a series of strange happenings in the dusty Texas town of Blest where drought has brought famine and hardship to most of the town and surrounding ranches. Unfortunately, that's the least of the town's worries! While the summer heat pushes the mercury toward further unbearable degrees during the day, the nights are haunted by strange unnatural creatures roaming the darkness. Macgregor, a former Pinkerton agent, seeks to uncover the town's dark secrets and tries desperately to keep his own past steeped in witchcraft and the supernatural hidden. At sundown... they'll be a showdown at High Moon.