Pretty much this. The Fed is backstopping losses. Betting against them post-2008 is a tough position to be in.
No, it's just pricing in low returns across all asset classes (to simplify, low interest rates) - assets are priced by excess returns not absolute.
There's nothing unreasonable about a P/E over historical norms if you think interest rates will continue to stay well below historical norms.
It is paradoxical that a sputtering economy can make equities worth more cheeseburgers, rather than fewer, but I see the logic. At some point, given the choice between a low-yielding equity and a cheeseburger, I'd rather have the cheeseburger.
For sure. People are not factoring in the long-term interest rate here - they should look at the risk-free T-bill rates in the 1980s and how equities performed against them, and what we're looking at as well.
2. Fed helped and did what they are supposed to, which is good for everyone.
3. Market is forward looking and it should be, otherwise it would be dumb. In other words corona will pass, it is not the end of the world and if stocks went too deep, potential earnings from stocks within 5-10 years down the line would be huge, so anyone looking at that timeframe would be buying at discount.
High p/e does not mean things are overvalued. It means whoever buys into market estimates strong future potential. Now knowing that you can start to argue whether they are over or under estimating.
Good for everyone. Much better for asset holders in a relative sense. Populism will continue to rise.
Now a month later, my initial instincts don't seem so wrong anymore: My portfolio is doing fine... All I missed out on was a bunch of theoretical day trading gains.
(Too bad the things that really matter, like my friends that run local businesses, and everyone's mental health, haven't fared as well)
https://howmuch.net/articles/price-changes-in-usa-in-past-20...
It's especially galling because the people pushing for these nigh-Stalinist levels of fed intervention and central planning (look how much support oddly favoured industries like manufacturing and coal get) are also posturing as champions of the Free Market. It's like we can't make any progress because nobody in charge is willing to argue in good faith.
If you're interested in preserving purchasing power 15 years from now, would you rather hold dollars or things today?
As a value investor, all of my theses were blown out of the water by the unprecedented Fed intervention. It is an environment in which the fundamentals are uncertain. I'm standing pat and waiting for things to make sense before moving again.
The trailing (!) S&P P/E is greater than 20 right now. The Fed is supporting prices above their historical mean/median of 15. It makes zero sense, from a financial standpoint, unless the market is pricing in substantial inflation.