40 years ago….the role and function of the markets was well understood. To provide liquidity.
The imperfect nature and travel time of information meant that anomalies could be uncovered, ie value stocks. Investing in the stock market essentially meant 2 things: 1) you were discovering companies that represented a good value based on your criteria, and 2) you were also betting on human behavior which is to say how you felt others perceived a situation.
Today between the algorithms, quants, high speed trading, market manipulation through naked shorting, buybacks, lack of dividends, manipulation of earnings ala jack welch, and other tactics…..whats a human retail investor to do?
There are still opportunities, but the enemy and the playing field has changed so much…..seems like the old tried and true concepts may not apply ?
