The optimists who think the bear market is ending and there is great times ahead with the next Bull Market cycle in sight will not like to see my chart below.
The scary thing about this chart is the Annualised PE Ratio value currently sitting at 30.64 and rising. It is easy to see inflation rate being the main driver of Annualised PE (PE10). High inflation or deflation = bad (lower than PE(10) average). Low inflation = good (higher than PE(10) average) Our recent low inflation Era is the reason why the market is "happy" (sentiment) with PE(10) operating at a much higher value than the average 15 -17 area.
However there are moments when the Market goes insane as seen on the charts with the extreme peaks and nadirs..At the moment Wall St market is living off the fumes of the low inflation era and it seems the present market (Wall St) is expecting the recent higher inflation rate to be short lived (in a secular sense)...If the higher inflation rate becomes sustainable and entrenched then expect the PE(10) to fall accordingly.
The PE(10) rule of thumb is anything above 20 is considered overvalued with the red line at >25 considered high risk of a major correction. The blue line< 10 is considered extremely undervalued. However these over and under valued figures depend on the inflation rate of the day of valuation..
For example the
30.4 value from an overall perspective is considered extremely overvalued and the market operating at high risk. Comparing that 30.4 figure two years ago when inflation was near zero % an analyst would have seen that 30.4 figure as being less over valued and a lesser risk than seeing that same figure today with inflation running at around 5%.
The charting of Annualised (inflation adjusted) PE Ratio shows the secular behaviour of the stockmarket (Wall St) which highlights ingrained (generational) investor trading behaviour sentiments which causes the market to be either undervalued or overvalued for very long periods of time.
The chart also highlights the wasted time in trying to determine what is a fair valuation of a market. The chart shows that history seldom sees the market at fair valuation (equilibrium). The Long term PE(10) chart shows the Wall St market is oscillating either between a secular Bull or Secular Bear Market Cycle.
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