Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of December 8, 2020

Article Excerpt

Early in my investment career, I developed a keen interest in what we called “investor rules of thumb.” Here are some random examples: “Stocks trading at a P/E ratio of 10 times per-share earnings or less are good buys.” “As January goes, so goes the year.” In other words, if the stock market goes up in January, it will probably have a gain for the year, as a whole. “When a stock rises and its volume of trading expands as well, it’s likely to keep rising.” There were multitudes of these rules. More came along all the time. Most were sayings that investors heard and repeated over many years. As time passed, commentators began doing computerized studies of trading data and history to see if they worked. Many these studies were commissioned by firms that planned to use the findings to attract customers to an investment product or service. Some rules did seem to workup to a pointin the right circumstancesif the time was right…