It’s hard to fully understand most phenomena in the investment world unless you’ve lived through them. According to the author, who happens to be just such an investor, the most common questions relate to market cycles.

The study of cycles is really about how to position your portfolio for the possible outcomes that lie ahead.Widespread risk tolerance—or a high degree of investor comfort with risk—is the greatest harbinger of subsequent market declines. Basic necessities (consumer staples) like food and medicine are less responsive to the economic cycle.

Good times cause people to become more optimistic, jettison their caution, and settle for skimpy risk premiums on risky investments. Most raging bull markets are abetted by an upsurge in the willingness to provide capital, usually imprudently. Distressed debt is bought on the anticipation that the new ownership interest in the company (after it emerges from bankruptcy) is worth significantly more than the value of the distressed debt. You now have a general sense of short-term market cycles and the potential benefits of paying attention to your position within them.As far as I was concerned, there wasn't enough discussion about central banks and the way they have refused to let cycles take their natural course in recent years. The long term economic cycle follows fundamental factors that produce a steady average growth rate over a longer secular trend. Of course, repeating key points can help you remember them but there is a limit and, in my opinion, Mr Marks crosses it. Both are determined by one ticket (the outcome) being pulled from a bowlful (the full range of possible outcomes). Corporate management is not immune to the swings from risk-averse to risk-tolerant either (see the financial crisis).