Sept. 28 -- Famed investor Howard Marks shares his insights on the value of remaining calm in troubled times at the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit in New York.
Forward PE is quite meaningless. The analysts tend to grossly overestimate forward earnings and this tendency gets worse at the late stages of market cycles. It's just a convenient way for them to pump up the price.
Funny thing is Assness et al ran the calculations to determine the average fwd P/E along his story. Their answer can be surprising to many. Sad thing is this 19 number for fwd P/E is being thrown around to assuage fears the market may be overvalued. And fact is that following fwd P/E numbers the market is as higly overvalued as using TTM P/E. P.S.: Assness calculations gauge fwd P/E along history to be in the mid 11s.
What does Howard Marks means, when he says "We are not driven by macros." Is "macro" a financial term that means something specific; Or is he referring to what macro means in general, i.e. big forces in the economy