As the 4th year of a bull market heads towards its conclusion, unsurprisingly, the broad public is starting to get more attracted to equities.  This is the exact wrong time to become bullish, as the prices for stocks are drastically more expensive than they have been over the last several years.  Benjamin Graham creased a simple metaphor for the market with his term “Mr. Market.”  The idea is that there will be times when “Mr. Market” is overly optimistic and will pay you a ridiculous price for your stocks, and there will be times when he is overly pessimistic and will sell you his stocks at absurdly cheap prices.  The key is to determine the intrinsic value of the business in question through analyzing the balance sheet, income statement, and all of the intangibles that are associated with business value.  After that analysis is done, the idea is to buy the business only at a reasonable discount to intrinsic value so that you are attaining a margin of safety on the investment.  Any approach not following this is much more akin to speculation than investing and is unlikely to lead to prosperous long-term results.  If you are the type that only wants to get involved with the markets at this stage of the game based on recent past performance, I’d suggest finding a value-oriented financial adviser such as T&T Capital Management, and to be more conservative than what your gut is telling you.

 

 

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