In December 1996, Alan Greenspan used the phrases “irrational exuberance” to explain the inventory market on the time, and people phrases not solely grew to become the title of Robert Shiller’s cautionary ebook on market bubbles, but in addition the beginnings of the idea that central bankers had the knowledge to be market timers and the facility to bend the economic system to their views. I believe that Greenspan’s phrases appear prophetic, solely with the advantage of hindsight, and I imagine that central bankers have neither the facility nor the instruments to maneuver the economic system in vital methods. I used to be reminded of that episode after I learn that Jerome Powell, the present Fed chair, had described the market as “pretty extremely valued”. In market technique communicate, these are phrases which can be at struggle with one another, since markets can both be “pretty valued” or “extremely valued”, however not each, however I do not blame Powell for being evasive. For a lot of this yr, and particularly since April, the query that market observers and buyers have confronted is whether or not shares, particularly in the US, are pushing into “bubble” territory and headed for a correction. As somebody who buys into the notion that market timing is the unattainable dream, you could discover it stunning that I believe that Powell is proper in his evaluation that shares are richly priced, however that stated, I’ll attempt to clarify why making the leap into concluding that shares are in a bubble, and appearing on that conclusion are rather more troublesome to do.
Monetary Markets in 2025
It has, to place it mildly, been an attention-grabbing yr for shares, as financial headwinds and shocks have mounted, with tariffs, wars and politics all including to the combination. After a primary quarter, the place it appeared like monetary markets would succumb to the stress of unhealthy information, inventory markets have come roaring again, stunning market consultants and economists. As a precursor to answering the query of whether or not shares are “pretty extremely valued” at present, let’s check out how we obtained to the place we’re on September 30, 2025.
Resilient Equities
We are going to begin with US equities, and whereas that will appear parochial, it’s value remembering that they represented greater than 50% of the whole market capitalization of all traded shares on the earth firstly of 2025. Within the determine under, we have a look at the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, with the previous standing in as a tough proxy for giant US market cap shares and the latter for expertise firms:
As you’ll be able to see, US equities have been down within the first quarter, however the standardized values point out that it was a lot worse for expertise firms than for the remainder of the market, with the NASDAQ down 21.3% by way of April 8, the market backside, whereas the S&P 500 was down 14.3%. On April 8, the consensus knowledge was that the long-awaited correction was upon us, and that tech shares would take extra of a beating over the remainder of the yr. The market, in fact, determined to upend expectations, as tech got here roaring again within the second and third quarters, carrying the market with it. Actually, by way of the primary three quarters, the NASDAQ has reclaimed the lead, up 17.3% to date this yr, whereas the S&P 500 is up 13.7%.
We take a more in-depth and extra detailed have a look at all publicly traded US equities, within the desk under, the place we escape the year-to-date efficiency, by sector:
The 2 finest performing sectors within the first three quarters of 2025 have been expertise (up $3.93 trillion and 22.4% YTD) and communication providers (up $1.29 trillion and 22.3% YTD). There are 5 sectors which lagged the market, with shopper staples and well being care successfully flat for the yr, and vitality shopper discretionary and actual property up solely 4-6% for the yr. Monetary, industrials and supplies, for essentially the most half, matched the general market by way of share change, and the general worth of US equities elevated by $8.3 trillion (13.76%) within the first 9 months of 2025. In case you puzzled by the outperformance of communication providers, it’s value noting that Alphabet and Meta, each of which derive massive parts of their revenues from internet marketing, are categorized by S&P as communication service firms. These two firms are a part of the Magazine Seven. and the businesses on this grouping have been the engine driving US equities for a lot of the final decade, main to speak of a top-heavy market. To evaluate their contribution to market efficiency, we checked out the combination market cap of the seven firms, relative to all 5748 traded US equities in 2023, 2024 and 2025 (YTD):
The combination market capitalization of the Magazine Seven, as a % of market cap of all traded US firms, has risen from 17.5% on the finish of 2022 to 24.6% on the finish of 2023 to 29.3% on the finish of 2024. Focusing simply on 2025, the Magazine Seven took a step again within the first quarter, dropping to 26.3% of total market cap on March 31, 2025, however has made a decisive comeback since, with a rise in market cap of $2.8 trillion within the first 9 months of 2025, accounting for 52.4% of the general improve in market capitalization this yr. Actually, the Magazine Seven now command 30.35% of the whole market capitalization for US equities, a better % than firstly of the yr. During the last three years, the Magazine Seven alone have accounted for greater than half of the rise in market capitalization of all US equities, annually.
There are different dimensions on which you’ll be able to slice and cube US equities, and we did a fast run by way of a few of them, by breaking US firms into groupings, based mostly upon traits, and inspecting efficiency in every one:
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Small cap versus Massive cap: For a lot of the massive century, small cap shares (particularly these within the backside decile of market capitalization) delivered greater returns than massive cap shares. As I argued in a put up from a decade in the past, the small cap premium has not simply disappeared for the reason that Nineteen Eighties, however been changed with a big cap premium. Taking a look at returns in 2025, damaged down by market capitalization firstly of the yr, here’s what we see:
As you’ll be able to see, this has been a great yr for small cap shares, with the underside half of the market seeing a a lot greater improve, in % phrases, in market cap than the highest half of the market, with a lot of the outperformance coming within the third quarter.
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Worth versus progress: One other enduring discovering from the final century is that low worth to ebook shares delivered greater returns, after adjusting for danger, than excessive worth to ebook shares. Whereas that is typically categorized as a worth impact, it really works provided that you settle for worth to ebook as a proxy for worth, however even that impact has largely been absent on this century. Breaking down shares based mostly upon worth to ebook ratios firstly of 2025, here’s what we get:
Whereas it’s too early to have a good time the return of worth, in 2025, low worth to ebook shares have accomplished higher than excessive worth to ebook shares, however all the outperformance got here within the first quarter of the yr.
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Momentum: Momentum has been a stronger drive in markets than both market cap or worth, and in contrast to these two, momentum has not simply maintained its edge, however strengthened it over the previous couple of years. Utilizing the value change in 2024 as a proxy for momentum, we broke firms down into deciles and checked out returns in 2025:
After lagging within the first quarter, momentum shares have made a comeback, with the highest half of momentum shares now main the underside half for the yr thus far in % change in market capitalization.
In sum, it has been a great yr, to date, for US equities, however the good points have been inconsistently distributed throughout the market, and whereas the primary quarter represented a break from the momentum and tech pushed market of 2023 and 2024, the second and third quarters noticed a return of these forces.
Directionless Treasuries
Whereas rates of interest are at all times a driver of inventory costs, they’ve performed much less of a job in driving fairness markets in 2025 than in prior years. To see why, check out US treasury charges, throughout maturities, in 2025:
Charges have for essentially the most half are near the place they have been firstly of the yr, with little or no intra-year volatility however financial tales about inflation and actual progress suggesting greater strikes. The battle between the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve has obtained quite a lot of press consideration, however the Fed’s inaction for a lot of the yr and decreasing of the Fed Funds fee in September appear to have had little or no influence on treasury charges.
On Could 16, 2025, Moody’s lowered the scores for the US from Aaa to Aa1, becoming a member of Fitch and S&P, however once more the impact on treasury charges was transient. In case you are questioning why this didn’t translate into a rise in default spreads (and charges), the probably reply is that markets weren’t shocked by the downgrade, and one of the best proof for that is within the 5-year US sovereign CDS unfold, a market-set quantity for default danger (spreads):
As you’ll be able to see there was a spike within the US sovereign CDS unfold this yr, however it occurred in response to liberation day on March 31, when President Trump introduced punishing tariffs on the remainder of the world. The Moody’s downgrade had little influence on the unfold, and even the tariff impact had absolutely pale by September 30, 2025, with spreads again to the place they have been firstly of the yr (and for a lot of the previous couple of years).
Extending the evaluation of default spreads to the company market, there was comparatively little motion in company default spreads in 2025:
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| Supply: FRED |
As you’ll be able to see, essentially the most putting a part of the story is that so little has modified over the course of 2025, however the spike in spreads within the first week of April, when the tariffs have been introduced. The Moody’s score and the discuss of a recession appear to have accomplished little to supercharge the concern issue, and by extension the spreads. Actually, the one score that has seen a big transfer is within the CCC and under grouping, the place spreads are actually greater than they have been firstly of the yr, however nonetheless a lot decrease than they have been on the finish of the primary quarter of 2025.
The Remainder of the Story
The financial shocks that hit the US markets, and which US equities and debt shrugged off, for essentially the most half, additionally reverberated in the remainder of the world. The broadest measure of relative efficiency between US and world equities is the divergence between the S&P 500, a proxy for US fairness efficiency, and the MSCI World index, a stand-in for giant cap worldwide shares, and the outcomes are under:
Within the first 9 months of 2025, the MSCI world fairness index is up 16.6%, about 2.3% greater than the S&P 500 over the identical interval. Nevertheless, all of this underperformance occurred within the first quarter of 2025, and the S&P 500 has discovered its successful methods once more within the second and third quarters.
The MSCI index does obscure variations throughout areas and is titled in direction of massive cap shares. Consequently, we checked out all publicly traded equities, damaged down by areas, with the values in US {dollars}, and the outcomes to date in 2025 are within the desk under:
World equities have been up, in combination greenback market capitalization, by 16.8%, and whereas US equities have underperformed within the first 9 months of 2025, with a 13,8% return, they’ve rediscovered their mojo within the second and third quarters. The worst performing areas of the world are India, down 3.15%, in US greenback phrases, this yr, and Africa and the Center East, up solely 2.13%. It’s too early to spin tales for why these areas underperformed, however in my knowledge replace put up from the beginning of 2025, I pointed to India as essentially the most extremely priced market on the earth, and this yr could mirror a cleansing up. The remainder of the world ran forward of the US, with among the further return coming from a weaker US greenback; the native forex returns in these areas have been decrease than the returns you see within the desk.
US Equities: Overpriced or Underpriced?
Not one of the dialogue above solutions the query that we began this put up with, which is whether or not US equities are overpriced. To make that evaluation, there are a number of metrics which can be used, and whereas all of them are flawed, they range by way of what they miss of the evaluation, and the assumptions that underlie them.
At one finish of the spectrum, the best and most incomplete metric relies purely on worth historical past, with markets which have had prolonged good runs being seen as overpriced. A modification is to carry earnings into the evaluation, with costs shifting disproportionately greater than earnings (leading to greater or decrease PE ratios) thought of a sign of market mispricing. The third adaptation permits for the returns you can also make on different investments, within the type of rates of interest on treasuries, to make a judgment on market pricing. The ultimate and fullest variant considers progress within the evaluation, bringing in each its good aspect (that it will increase earnings in future intervals) and its unhealthy aspect (that it wants a portion of earnings to be reinvested), to make a pricing judgment, however even that variant ignores disruptions that alter market dynamics and danger taking.
1. Rising inventory costs
For some buyers, an prolonged stretch of rising inventory costs is, by itself, adequate cause to conclude that if shares are doing so nicely, they should be overvalued. This concern will get deeper because the market run will get longer (by way of time) and steeper (by way of worth rise). Utilizing that framework, you’ll be able to see why discuss of a inventory market bubble has constructed up over the past decade, as shares preserve climbing partitions of fear and hitting new highs. We have had a exceptional bull run in US equities over the past 15 years, with the S&P 500 up over 500% over that interval:
In brief, the annual return (18.74%) that fairness buyers have earned over the past fifteen years is considerably greater than the annual return (9.94%) on US equities over the past century. For some, this run-up alone is sufficient to determine that equities are overpriced and incomplete although this evaluation is, you’ll be able to see its draw for a lot of buyers.
2. The Earnings Impact
Taking a look at rising inventory costs as an indicator of overpricing ignores the truth that markets can generally be up strongly, not due to hypothesis or over pricing, however due to rising earnings. That’s the reason that many buyers have a look at market pricing scaled to earnings, or PE ratios, and the graph under captures three variants of the PE ratio – the trailing PE, the place you scale market pricing to earnings within the final twelve months, a normalized PE, the place you scale the market pricing to common earnings over an extended time interval (a decade) and a CAPE or Shiller PE, the place you first regulate earnings for inflation after which normalize:
All three variations of the PE ratio inform the identical story, and in September 2025, all three stood near all time highs, with the spike on the peak of the dot com increase being the one exception.
3. The Investing Options
Shares that commerce at greater multiples of earnings are clearly costlier than when then commerce at decrease, however to make a judgment on whether or not they’re overpriced, you continue to have to match them to what you can also make on different investments. For buyers in monetary belongings, these different investments are bonds (in case you are investing long run) or business paper/treasury payments (in case you are investing quick time period). Logically, if these options are yielding low returns, try to be prepared to pay a a lot greater multiples of earnings for dangerous belongings (like shares). A technique through which we are able to carry on this alternative is by flipping the PE ratio (to get the incomes to cost ratio or earnings yield) and evaluating that incomes yield to the ten-year treasury bond fee:
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Between 2011 and 2020, for example, the earnings yield was 5.46% however that was a lot greater than the 10-year treasury bond fee, which averaged 2.15% over that decade. In 2021, the earnings yield dropped to 4.33%, near a historic low, butt with the treasury bond fee at 1.51%, you possibly can argue that fairness buyers had nowhere else to go. As treasury bond charges climbed again in direction of 4% in 2022, inventory costs dropped and the earnings yield climbed to five.72%. Within the final three years (2023-25), treasury charges have stayed greater (4% or extra), however earnings yields have dropped. Actually, the earnings yield of 4% in September 2025 was 0.16% under the ten-year treasury bond fee, triggering bearish warnings from analysts who use the distinction between the earnings yield and the ten-year bond fee as their market timing metric.
4. The Remainder of the Story – Money flows, Development and Danger
The earnings yield, together with the treasury bond fee, is extensively used as a market timing instrument, however it has two, maybe deadly, flaws.
- The primary is that it treats shares as in the event that they have been glorified bonds, treating the earnings yield like a coupon, and misses the rationale that buyers are drawn to equities, which is the potential for progress. Incorporating progress into the evaluation has two results, with the primary being that you simply want reinvestment to develop, and that reinvestment comes out of earnings, and the second being the upside of accelerating earnings over time.
- The second is that the earnings yield/ treasury bond fee differential has had a spotty file timing the market, lacking a lot of the good bull market of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, and clearly not offering a lot predictive energy within the final two years.
There’s an strategy that you should utilize to include the expansion and money circulate results into your market evaluation. It’s to estimate an intrinsic worth for the market, the place you incorporate the expansion and reinvestment results into anticipated money flows, and low cost them at a required return that comes with what you’ll be able to earn on a riskfree (or near riskfree) funding and a danger premium for investing in equities.
As you’ll be able to see, the intrinsic worth equation can be utilized in one in every of two methods to evaluate the market. One is to again out an inside fee of return, i.e., a reduction fee that yields a gift worth equal to the market index; netting out the treasury bond fee from this yields an implied fairness danger premium for the market. The opposite is select an fairness danger premium that you simply imagine is cheap and to worth the market.
As is usually the case with historic comparisons, there’s something right here for each aspect of the controversy. For many who imagine that the market is overpriced, the plain comparability is to fairness danger premiums for the reason that 2008 disaster, and the conclusion can be that the Sept 2025 premium of 4.01% is simply too low (and inventory costs are too excessive). For many who are extra sanguine concerning the market, the comparability can be to the dot-com increase days, when the implied fairness danger premium dipped to 2%, to conclude that this market shouldn’t be in a bubble.
An alternate method to assess market pricing is to imagine an fairness danger premium and estimate the worth of the index utilizing that premium. Thus, if we assume that the common premium (4.25%) from 1960 to 2024 is a good premium to the market, and revalue the index, here’s what we’d get as its worth:
With an implied fairness danger premium of 4.25%, and a riskfree fee of 4.16%, we get an anticipated return on shares of 8.41%, and utilizing analyst estimates of progress in earnings and money payout ratios that regulate over time to sustainable ranges, we arrive at a worth for the index of about 5940, 12.6% decrease than the index worth on September 30, 2025.
The Market Timing Problem
It’s plain that this market is richly priced on each metric, from PE ratios to the earnings yield, web of treasuries, to intrinsic worth measures just like the fairness danger premium, thus offering backing for Powell’s evaluation of equities as “pretty extremely valued”. In case you belief in imply reversion to historic averages, it appears cheap to conclude that shares are actually overpriced, and due for a correction. On this part, we’ll study why, even should you come to this conclusion, it’s troublesome to transform it into motion.
Utilizing lawyerly language, let’s stipulate that markets are overpriced at present, although that overpricing can cowl a spread of views from the market being a bubble to the markets simply being costly. There are 5 responses you can should this judgment, starting from least aggressive to most aggressive in the marketplace timing entrance:
- Do nothing: The essence of being a non-market timer is that you don’t alter any side of your portfolio to mirror your market views. Thus, in case your most popular allocation combine is 60% in shares and 40% in your bonds, you stick with that blend, and also you not solely maintain on to your current investments however you proceed so as to add to them in the identical means that you’ve at all times accomplished.
- Maintain on to/ construct money holdings: For essentially the most half, you match what you’d have accomplished within the do nothing response by way of total asset allocation combine and holdings, however you not solely put your portfolio additions into money (treasury payments, cash market funds) however if you act, it will likely be extra prone to be promoting current holdings (that you simply view as over valued) than shopping for new ones. For a lot of fairness mutual fund managers, this statistic (liquid belongings and money as a % of belongings beneath administration) is a tough proxy of how bullish or bearish they’re concerning the total market.
- Change asset allocation combine: On this response, you revisit your most popular asset allocation combine, which was set based mostly in your age, money wants and danger aversion, and alter it to mirror your market timing views. Thus, should you imagine that shares are overpriced, however you view bonds as pretty and even beneath priced, you’ll lower your allocation to the previous, and improve your allocation to the latter. In case you are constrained to be an all-equity investor, an alternate model can be to reallocate your cash from overpriced geographies to underpriced geographies, if the latter exist.
- Purchase safety: With the expansion of choices and futures markets, you now have methods of defending your portfolio, with out making wrenching modifications to your asset allocation or holdings combine. You should buy places on the index or promote index futures, should you suppose equities are overpriced, and profit from the truth that the earnings from these positions will offset the losses in your portfolio, if there’s a correction.
- Make leveraged bets of market correction: Probably the most aggressive method to benefit from market timing is to make leveraged bets on market corrections, utilizing both derivatives markets (places or futures) or promoting quick on both all the shares in an index, or a subset of essentially the most overpriced.
In making this selections, you do have to think about three actual world considerations. The primary is taxes, with any methods that requires vital disruptions to current portfolios, similar to altering asset allocation mixes or promoting overvalued shares within the portfolio, creating bigger tax payments. The second is transactions prices, which may even be greater for any technique that’s constructed round extra aggressive. The third is timing, which is that even in case you are proper concerning the overpricing, being proper too early could wipe out the advantages. Talking of Alan Greenspan’s warnings concerning the dot com bubble, it’s value remembering that his “irrational exuberance” feedback have been made in 1996, and that the market correction occurred in 2001, and any investor who offered equities proper after the feedback have been made would have underperformed an investor who held on to equities and took the hit from the correction.
Let’s assume that you simply take away taxes and transactions prices from the evaluation to offer market timing the very best pathway to success. To check whether or not market timing works, it’s important to create a market timing technique round your metric of alternative, with three steps fleshed out:
- Select your pricing metric: As famous within the final part, this may be the proportion improve in inventory costs over a current interval, the present or normalized pricing ratio (PE, PBV, EV to EBITDA) or the fairness danger premium/intrinsic worth for the index.
- Create your motion rule: The motion rule specifies the edge for the chosen metric, the place you’ll act in your market timing. You possibly can, for example, determine that you’ll improve your fairness publicity if the PE ratio is greater than 25% under the median worth for the market’s PE ratios over the earlier 25, 50 or 100 years, and cut back your fairness publicity if the PE ratio is greater than 25% greater than the median worth over the interval. Observe that the commerce off on setting the edge is that setting it to a bigger worth (say 50%) will imply that you simply time the market much less.
- Select your market timing response: You specify how a lot you’ll improve or lower your fairness publicity in response to the market timing sign. Thus, you probably have base asset allocation mixture of 60% equities, 40% bonds, you’ll be able to determine that in case your threshold (from step 2) is breached, and the PE ratio drops (will increase) by greater than 25% under the median, your fairness publicity will improve (lower) to 80% (40%) and your bond publicity lowered (elevated) to twenty% (60%). The extra aggressive you might be as a market timer, the larger would be the shift away out of your base combine. Thus, you possibly can promote all equities (0% equities, 100% bonds) if the market is overpriced and maintain solely equities (100% equities, 0% bonds) if the market is underpriced.
As an instance, let’s use the Shiller PE, decide a 25% threshold for market cheapness and alter your asset allocation combine, which might usually be 60% fairness/40% debt to 80% equities/20% debt if the Shiller PE drops 25% under the median (computed over the prior 50 years) and 40% equities/ 60% bonds if it rises 25% above the median.
Observe that the check can simply be various, utilizing a unique metric, completely different thresholds and completely different timing responses.
To keep away from being accused of cherry choosing the info or deviating from the usual measures of the Shiller PE, I downloaded the uncooked knowledge on inventory returns, bonds and the CAPE annually from 1871-2025 from Shiller’s personal webpage. To compute the payoff to market timing, I appeared on the annual returns to an non-market-timing investor who stayed with a 60% fairness/40% bond combine over time and in contrast it to the returns of a market timer, utilizing the edge/motion technique described above:
During the last century, this market timing technique would have lowered your annual returns 0.04% annually, and that’s earlier than transactions prices and taxes. In case you break this up into two half-centuries, any of the market timing good points have been from 1924-1974, and so they have been gentle, and attempting to time the market would have lowered your annual returns by 0.41% a yr, on common between 1975 and 2024.
To judge whether or not the payoff would have been completely different with alternate thresholds, we thought of each a a lot decrease threshold (10%) and a a lot greater one (50%), with the previous resulting in extra market timing actions. We additionally checked out a extra aggressive response, the place the fairness portion was elevated to 100% (as an alternative of 80%) if the market was underpriced and lowered to 0% (as an alternative of 40%) if the market was overpriced. The outcomes are in under:
Conclusion
The choice on whether or not to time markets is a private one, and whereas I’ve concluded it doesn’t work for me, it might be presumptuous to assert that it’ll not be just right for you. In case you determine that market timing is a part of your funding philosophy, although, there are three classes that I hope that this put up has highlighted. The primary is that the extra incomplete your market timing metrics are, the larger the prospect that you’ll chasing a correction that by no means occurs. It’s the cause that try to be skeptical about arguments constructed round simply pricing, PE ratios or earnings yields (relative to treasury bond charges), and even with extra full metrics, try to be scanning the horizon for basic modifications within the economic system and markets that will clarify the deviation. The second is that the proof {that a} metric will be just right for you won’t come from statistical measures (correlations and regressions), however from creating and back-testing an actionable technique (of shopping for or promoting traded devices) based mostly on the metric. The third is that even should you do all of this due diligence, market timing is noisy and flawed, and paraphrasing one other extensively used expressions, markets can keep mispriced for longer than you’ll be able to keep solvent.
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Datasets
- Historic returns on shares, bonds, payments, actual property and gold: 1927 – 2024
- PE, Normalized PE, Shiller PE and Earnings Yield Information for US Shares: 1960-2025
- Shiller knowledge on inventory returns, rates of interest and CAPE (month-to-month): 1871-2024 (from Shiller)
- Implied Fairness Danger Premiums for the S&P 500: 1960-2025
Spreadsheets