Musings on Markets

JANUARY 24, 2024

In my last post, I looked at equities in 2023, and argued that while they did well during 2023, the bounce back were uneven, with a few big winning companies and sectors, and a significant number of companies not partaking in the recovery. In fact, treasury bill rates consistently rise ahead of the Fed's actions over the two years.

Treasury 52

Treasury Risk Premium Start-ups Risk-free Rate 52

Musings on Markets

AUGUST 15, 2023

In every introductory finance class, you begin with the notion of a risk-free investment, and the rate on that investment becomes the base on which you build, to get to expected returns on risky assets and investments. What is a risk free investment? Why does the risk-free rate matter?

Risk-free Rate 80

Risk-free Rate Treasury Risk Premium Start-ups 80

Musings on Markets

AUGUST 5, 2023

If you have been reading my posts, you know that I have an obsession with equity risk premiums, which I believe lie at the center of almost every substantive debate in markets and investing. How, you may ask, can equity risk premiums be that divergent, and does that imply that anything goes?

Risk Premium 78

Risk Premium Equity Start-ups Treasury 78

Musings on Markets

MAY 6, 2022

It is precisely because we have been spoiled by a decade of low and stable inflation that the inflation numbers in 2021 and 2022 came as such a surprise to economists, investors and even the Fed.

Risk Premium 92

Risk Premium Treasury Start-ups Equity 92

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 28, 2024

In my last data updates for this year, I looked first at how equity markets rebounded in 2023 , driven by a stronger-than-expected economy and inflation coming down, and then at how interest rates mirrored this rebound.

Risk Premium 93

Risk Premium Beta Start-ups Equity 93

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

As I have argued in all four of my posts, so far, about 2022, it was year when we saw a return to normalcy on many fronts, as treasury rates reverted back to pre-2008 levels, and risk capital discovered that risk has a downside.

Start-ups 52

Start-ups Equity Risk Premium Risk-free Rate 52

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 21, 2023

It is the nature of stocks that you have good years and bad ones, and much as we like to forget about the latter during market booms, they recur at regular intervals, if for no other reason than to remind us that risk is not an abstraction, and that stocks don't always win, even in the long term. Stocks: The What? at the start of that year.

Equity 70

Equity Risk Premium Start-ups Dividends 70

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

In the month since, I have added two more data updates, one on US equities and one on interest rates , but my attention was drawn away by other interesting stories. It is also the aspect of country risk, where there is the longest history of measurement, and there are widely used measurement tools.

Risk Premium 76

Risk Premium Start-ups Equity Marketability 76

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

In the first few weeks of 2022, we have had repeated reminders from the market that risk never goes away for good, even in the most buoyant markets, and that when it returns, investors still seem to be surprised that it is there.

Risk Premium 67

Risk Premium Beta Start-ups Equity 67

ThomsonReuters

JUNE 15, 2021

Use of Special purpose acquisition (SPAC) vehicles have spiked over the past year because private equity and venture capital firms have excess cash they need to put to work, accounting practitioners said mid-June. These standards require companies to assess whether the warrants should be equity or liability classified.

Risk-free Rate 64

Risk-free Rate Equity Start-ups Book Value 64

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 20, 2021

With equities, the metric that has been in use the longest is the PE ratio, modified in recent years to the CAPE, where earnings are normalized (by averaging over time) and sometimes adjusted for inflation. Note that nothing that I have said so far is premised on modern portfolio theory, or any academic view of risk premiums.

Risk Premium 52

Risk Premium Risk-free Rate Equity Dividends 52

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 5, 2024

Beta & Risk 1. Return on Equity 1. Equity Risk Premiums 2. Ratings & Spreads 2. Tax rates 4. Costs of equity & capital 4. Valuation Pricing Growth & Reinvestment Profitability Risk Multiple s 1. Valuation Pricing Growth & Reinvestment Profitability Risk Multiple s 1.

Dividends 98

Dividends Risk Premium Equity Book Value 98

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 26, 2023

Tesla's rise is summarized in the graph below, where we look at the company's revenues and earnings over time, with earnings measured in gross and operating terms, and EBITDA capturing operating cash flows: 2022 numbers updated to reflect 4th quarter earnings call on 1/25/23 Between 2010 and 2020, Tesla grew revenues from $117 million to $31.5

Start-ups 80

Start-ups Marketability Risk Premium Equity 80

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

The first of the is as companies scale up, there will be a point where they will hit a growth wall, and their growth will converge on the growth rate for the economy. In short, I am assuming that the price cuts and cost pressures of the fourth quarter are more representative of what Tesla will face in the future, as competition steps up.

Start-ups 99

Start-ups Risk-free Rate Market Capitalization Marketability 99

Musings on Markets

JULY 25, 2023

In 2022, North America and Western Europe scored highest on the democracy index, and Middle East and Africa scored the lowest. For three decades, I have wrestled with measuring this additional risk exposure and converting that measurement into an equity risk premium, but it remains a work in progress.

Risk Premium 52

Risk Premium Equity Start-ups Risk-free Rate 52