IShopAtPublix gets the purpose of this thread.
I was questioning whether the value investing approach would work at any time in history and at any point in the business/economic cycle (this is what value investors claim when their deride market timers as nothing but gamblers).
"Just stick it out" they say. "Don't try and predict recessions or where the market will be!"
In the face of a massively inflated P/E, I think this is a recipe for disaster.
The other interesting thing about value investing is that one can easily be right for the wrong reasons, especially during bull markets.
They say you can't predict where the market is going (the market meaning the averages), yet the averages rotate through companies like nobody's business (AIG was taken off the Dow 30 recently!). At the same time they say, buy during declines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4-VA_PpWvA
Value investors ARE trend traders. They have been trading in the direction of economic expansion. To think that this trend will continue indefinately is beyond crazy and is the worst sort of simplistic thinking! And even if it does, you can still be holding a losing position for decades until you break even.
For those who throw Buffet's name around: Guess what, he only made about 5% of his money by value investing.