The writer is founder and chief executive of Trivariate Research
Many of us in markets were reared to believe that the key to investing in stocks was to buy low and sell high. We buy our little dream today and sell it to a someone with a bigger dream later. That philosophy implies that buying stocks with a cheap valuation, on metrics such as price-to-forward earnings, or with high free cash flow yield, is important. The truth is, though, that in most cases such an approach has been declining in usefulness for stock selection and over-reliance on it can destroy value.
Three years ago, artificial intelligence was not on most investors’ radar screens. Now it is influencing nearly every investment decision and it is a big reason why a valuation metric-based approach to investing won’t be as effective for stock selection for the coming year.