My not-so-profound thoughts about valuation, corporate finance and the news of the day! Tuesday, January 9, 2018 January 2017 Data Update 2: The Buoyancy of US Equities If you were an investor in US stocks, 2017 was a very good year for you. Faced with a wall of macro economic and political worries, the US equity market proved more than up to the challenge and delivered good returns, proving the experts wrong again. Looking back at the year, the word that I used to describe US equities at the start of last year, which was "resilient", best described US stocks in 2017 as well. As we enter 2018 with US stocks at historical highs, worries remain, but stocks are on a healthier footing now, than a year ago, in terms of fundamentals. At the same time, the long promised surge in T.Bond rates that the Fed watchers promised us would happen in 2017 was nowhere to be seen, which raises interesting questions about whether we should waste our time listening to either stock market prognosticators and Fed watchers. But then again, without them, how would CNBC fill all its time? https://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2018/01/january-2017-data-update-2-buoyancy-of.html About Me Aswath Damodaran I am a Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at NYU. I teach classes in corporate finance and valuation, primarily to MBAs, but generally to anyone who will listen. View my complete profile
U.S. unemployment, very low; interest rates at record low levels; business regulations being cut; corporate taxes cut; world-wide economic climate very good. What macro economic worries are your referring to?
How do you engage your students? I imagine Stern has highly motivated students and probably are easy to engage.
It was an interesting article Aswath, thanks for posting this. I don't mean to be rude but aren't academics one of the trader's main opponents? I mean, the more successful we are at making money independently, the less money goes into the money management industry, which cuts your university's admissions from the same pool, which is professionally bad for you. So whatever you and your peers can do to downgrade our potential achievements has to repay you.
Clueless post. Many of the trading ideas came from academics. Many of the etf's espouses academic innovations of "Factor" beta's. Many of the academics with stellar qualification have been successful money managers. AQR is filled with them. Money management had a record year. Look at the asset gatherings of Blackrock and Vanguard. University applications to good university's is at record level. He does not have to worry about employment. He is one of the premier professor of corporate finance. His "Valuation" textbook is defacto text book in many MBA classes across the globe.
Money managers are not private retail traders, private retail traders don't do what money managers do. So who cares what they've done, when or how. Most academics with anything to say about the markets are working to assist the money management industry, their clients. Now, if an academic came forth with a great performance as a private retail trader, that is something I would have to respect.