I want to share with you my style of trading. Its a sort of hybrid from many of the great traders, and it does pretty well for my account. At the micro level, I think in terms of expectations trading.
The term expectations investing was popularized in the book written by Michael Mauboussin. His theory takes a DCF and turns it on its head. Instead of trying to forecast future cashflows for a company and bringing them back to today by discounting them, he uses the current price of a stock and tries to figure out what growth assumptions are embedded into the price. This helps him to gauge the expectations of the market for the equity, and then he can decide if he agrees or disagrees.
In practice, there is one metric that anyone can get very quickly to gauge the expectations of the market on a stock, and that metric is called the FCF Yield. The higher the FCF yield, the lower the expectations the market has put on the stock. Let me give you two examples.
Example 1: ADBE
ADBE is currently trading at an 8% FCF Yield. Whats important is context, this is the highest that yield has been for the company since 2012. The market is pricing ADBE as a company that is dying, largely because of concerns that AI is destroying the moat of the company and coming after its business. I think there are some serious concerns, but I think the fear is overdone. A simple rerate to a 6% FCF Yield would imply a 40% increase in current price, and a 6% FCF yield is still relatively high for ADBE.
Example 2: PLTR
PLTR is currently trading at a .5% FCF Yield. Unlike ADBE, this is near the lowest yield since January of 2022. This implies the market has very high expectations for PLTR and any missteps would likely lead to a huge selloff, meaning PLTR is very vulnerable to any headwinds macro or individual
Putting this together:
What I have found is that certain market environments support different ranges of FCF yields better. When the market is overall euphoric, it is likely to be very optimistic about the future and will easily support FCF Yields in the sub 1.5-2% range. In markets where the traders and investors require a little more proof like today, then markets are more likely to support 2-5% ranges better. If the market was very skeptical, then it would likely desire higher yields above 5%.
Where are we today?
Today we have pockets of euphoria mixed in with pockets of higher proof required mixed in with pockets where higher yields perform better. It is quite an interesting market actually.
Stocks that are relying on AI to profit in the future, the market is requiring more proof from, like MSFT.
Stocks that are building out the infrastructure required for Data centers, updating the power grid etc, are likely to find euphoric markets and support lower FCF Yields. Stocks like PWR, MTZ, CAT etc.
Stocks that are selling off because the market thinks AI is going to drive them out of business are likely going to require higher yields such as 5% plus like GTLB and ADBE
How to trade this?
This is the most important right? First of all, your style matters and it might not match mine. I am a swing trader. I like stocks that are technically above 200SMA no matter what UNLESS I am taking a contrarian view like buying undervalued. But then I think where do I want to be positioned? Personally, I like to be in the euphoric parts of the market as much as possible because thats where the outsized returns usually can be found in my experience. So I am looking at Precious metals, Infrastructure etc. That said, I am watching the market and if it seems like its not supporting those FCF yields I will likely rotate to a new FCF yield range, and choose the stocks that are best within it.
Whats the point?
The point is that trading actually should be easy. People think its hard but when its hard, assuming you have a good foundation, it means your fishing in the wrong fishing hole. When your euphoria is high and every trade is a winner it seems it means you found the right location. If you get chopped out, it means you need to move your location, not keep trying in the same place until it works again.
This is why its so important to have a map of the terrain, so when things get hard, you know where to try next.
Hope this is a value add for someone, if so let me know and I will make another post of how I actually choose my universe of stocks
The term expectations investing was popularized in the book written by Michael Mauboussin. His theory takes a DCF and turns it on its head. Instead of trying to forecast future cashflows for a company and bringing them back to today by discounting them, he uses the current price of a stock and tries to figure out what growth assumptions are embedded into the price. This helps him to gauge the expectations of the market for the equity, and then he can decide if he agrees or disagrees.
In practice, there is one metric that anyone can get very quickly to gauge the expectations of the market on a stock, and that metric is called the FCF Yield. The higher the FCF yield, the lower the expectations the market has put on the stock. Let me give you two examples.
Example 1: ADBE
ADBE is currently trading at an 8% FCF Yield. Whats important is context, this is the highest that yield has been for the company since 2012. The market is pricing ADBE as a company that is dying, largely because of concerns that AI is destroying the moat of the company and coming after its business. I think there are some serious concerns, but I think the fear is overdone. A simple rerate to a 6% FCF Yield would imply a 40% increase in current price, and a 6% FCF yield is still relatively high for ADBE.
Example 2: PLTR
PLTR is currently trading at a .5% FCF Yield. Unlike ADBE, this is near the lowest yield since January of 2022. This implies the market has very high expectations for PLTR and any missteps would likely lead to a huge selloff, meaning PLTR is very vulnerable to any headwinds macro or individual
Putting this together:
What I have found is that certain market environments support different ranges of FCF yields better. When the market is overall euphoric, it is likely to be very optimistic about the future and will easily support FCF Yields in the sub 1.5-2% range. In markets where the traders and investors require a little more proof like today, then markets are more likely to support 2-5% ranges better. If the market was very skeptical, then it would likely desire higher yields above 5%.
Where are we today?
Today we have pockets of euphoria mixed in with pockets of higher proof required mixed in with pockets where higher yields perform better. It is quite an interesting market actually.
Stocks that are relying on AI to profit in the future, the market is requiring more proof from, like MSFT.
Stocks that are building out the infrastructure required for Data centers, updating the power grid etc, are likely to find euphoric markets and support lower FCF Yields. Stocks like PWR, MTZ, CAT etc.
Stocks that are selling off because the market thinks AI is going to drive them out of business are likely going to require higher yields such as 5% plus like GTLB and ADBE
How to trade this?
This is the most important right? First of all, your style matters and it might not match mine. I am a swing trader. I like stocks that are technically above 200SMA no matter what UNLESS I am taking a contrarian view like buying undervalued. But then I think where do I want to be positioned? Personally, I like to be in the euphoric parts of the market as much as possible because thats where the outsized returns usually can be found in my experience. So I am looking at Precious metals, Infrastructure etc. That said, I am watching the market and if it seems like its not supporting those FCF yields I will likely rotate to a new FCF yield range, and choose the stocks that are best within it.
Whats the point?
The point is that trading actually should be easy. People think its hard but when its hard, assuming you have a good foundation, it means your fishing in the wrong fishing hole. When your euphoria is high and every trade is a winner it seems it means you found the right location. If you get chopped out, it means you need to move your location, not keep trying in the same place until it works again.
This is why its so important to have a map of the terrain, so when things get hard, you know where to try next.
Hope this is a value add for someone, if so let me know and I will make another post of how I actually choose my universe of stocks
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