Market Expected Return on Investment

  • Intangible assets matter more and more in the stock market.
  • Yet, they are generally poorly accounted for and valued.
  • This is a useful paper on a new metric – the market expected return on investment – that aims to give a more accurate view of returns in a world increasingly dominated by intangible assets.
  • Though technical it is worth a careful read.

Sector Neutral Value

  • Value stocks’ underperformance against growth (yellow line) is well documented.
  • Things look different at the sector neutral level (blue line) i.e. picking the cheapest stocks within a given sector.
  • This measure actually worked very well from 2002 to 2017/18, while the overall measure continued to fall.
  • It only fell apart in the last few years as growth mania took hold, but has bounced back very sharply.
  • Source.

Holding Winners is Hard

  • A nice article showing that holding winners is a trying experience.
  • For example Amazon – “The near-95% crash following the tech bust is the one most people point to. The stock was underwater from 1999 to 2009! But there was a 54% crash from 2005-2006, a 58% dive in 2008 and 5 separate losses of 25% or worse since 2009.
  • Why is it so hard – “Since 1980, more than 40% of all companies in the U.S. stock market have experienced a decline of 70% or worse without recovering.
  • This link has a full analysis of the business “failures” 2017-2020 which is worth reading.

Growth Premium and Interest Rates

  • Chart from Empirical Research shows price paid for growth (P/E multiple divided by trailing 5 year revenue growth) against the term premium in the bond market.
  • We’re now exiting a unique period of negative term premiums and growth multiples are still high. As a result, growth stocks are at risk for possibly minor changes in perceptions of future interest rates and inflation, irrespective of what the Fed decides to do and when.

Dealer Gamma

  • This chart shows the S&P 500 (green line) vs. dealer gamma exposure (yellow/purple line).
  • “The read is simple: positive dealer gamma means that dealer flow attenuates market flow (i.e. the brakes are on); negative dealer gamma means that dealer flow amplifies market flow (i.e. pedal to the metal).”
  • The level on the 4th of March is 30% more than this time last year – which ever direction the market moves it will be get an extra boost.
  • h/t Squeezemetrics and Threebodycapital.

Real Options and Valuation

  • A fascinating read about the use of real options in valuation analysis by Mauboussin and Callahan.
  • They argue it applies to a subset of companies – namely those with adept management, strong competitive position and high asset volatility.
  • They also show why 2020 had characteristics (like decoupling of volatility and equity risk premium) that made this type of analysis more attractive.

JPM Outlook 2021

  • Good outlook piece by JPM Asset Management.
  • Some amazing stats on the state of US federal finance – debt levels are about to hit World War II peaks (as % of GDP), and the projected 2020 deficit (at 16% of GDP) is the largest since 1945.
  • This interesting chart shows the fall in the corporate effective tax rate for large cap stocks over the years.
  • Under Biden’s plan – which will raise $2.2trn by raising and broadening corporate taxes (vs. $700bn Trump corporate tax cuts) – this trend could reverse (costing 10% of S&P EPS).
  • Lots of other interesting observations inside.
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