Equity Market Valuations: Which Markets Are Cheap Now?

US stocks continue to remain expensive relative to other markets according to a recent article posted at Schroders. Going into 2018, US equities were expensive based on multiple metrics. So even after the decline and volatility in the first quarter of this year, valuations are not in favor of American stocks. Click to enlarge Source: Which …

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S&P 500 Forward P/E Ratio Since April, 2006: Chart

Valuations remain elevated for US stocks. For instance, the S&P 500’s forward P/E rose above 20 going into 2018. Since then volatile and declining stock prices have pushed the ratio down to below 17. The chart below shows the S&P 500 Forward P/E Ratio since April of  2006: Click to enlarge Source: Focus on Fundamentals, Legg …

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Why Diversify Internationally?

One of the easiest and simplest diversification strategies is to diversify across borders.Since the performance of equity markets varies across countries in any given year, an investor can boost their returns by spreading their assets across many countries. For example, emerging markets that are highly dependent on commodity exports perform well when commodity markets boom. …

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Developed Equity Markets Outperform Emerging Markets in the Long Run

Emerging equity markets tend to offer higher returns than developed markets during some periods but not all the time. Emerging markets also go thru boom and busts like the developed markets but the magnitude of rise and fall in those markets is much higher than their developed world peers. In the really long run emerging …

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Should Investors Really Worry About The Decline in the Number of Public Companies?

The number of public companies in the US has continued to decline for many years now. One of the implications of this scenario is that investors have fewer options to invest in. To put it another way, billions of dollars flowing into the equity markets have fewer places to find a home. As a result, …

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