To offer some insight on prospective losses over the completion of the market cycle, the following chart examines the S&P 500 stocks, and shows the median drawdown (loss to lowest point) of stocks within
each valuation decile.
Not exact matches
So if we look at a range of market
valuation measures, whether it's Shiller CAPE, whether its price - to - book, whether it's price - to - trailing earnings, price - to - peak earnings, when we look at these measures, they look like they're in the, what we would call, the 10th
decile, meaning generally,
valuations are cheaper 90 % of the time.
You'll notice that the overvaluation at the 2000 peak was really dominated by extreme
valuation in the top
decile of price / revenue ratios.
For each
decile, we've subtracted the 1986 - 2016 average price / revenue ratio for that
decile, dividing the result by the standard deviation of
valuations in that
decile (again from 1986 - 2016).
The chart below shows the minimum and maximum standardized
valuation across the 10
deciles of S&P 500 stocks.
Even the
decile with the best relative
valuation is at the most extreme level in history.
The chart below provides some insight into S&P 500
valuations, breaking price / revenue ratios into ten
deciles from highest to lowest multiples.
The blue and yellow dots on the regression lines correspond to the relative
valuation of the value factor, equal to 0.13 in March 2016, comfortably in the bottom
decile of historical relative
valuation.
Thank goodness the relationship is weak, as current
valuations for low beta stocks are well into the top
decile of historical experience regardless of the
valuation measure used.
Value (using both forms, B / P and blended) falls in the bottom quintile of its historical
valuation in both international and emerging markets; of 12 comparisons (U.S., international, and emerging markets, constructed using both B / P and the blended
valuation, and with relative
valuation measured versus both P / B and the aggregate measure), 11 suggest value is trading cheap, with 5 in the bottom
decile of the historical
valuation range.
That is, on January 1st of each year (putting aside the fact that the market's closed on New Year's Day), you are «looking back» into lagging fundamental
valuation data of the prior year to sort «All stocks» into updated
deciles, and then going long on about 60 or about 120 of the stocks in the «value
decile» (i.e., the bottom 10 % of All stocks that have the lowest EM).
Valuation of the market is not considered since you are not investing in the market, only in the value
decile.
One reason is the relative
valuations of the value
deciles in the Dot Com Bust and the Credit Crisis.
Rewards are relatively thin now,
valuations are somewhere in the 9th
decile (80 - 90 %).