Resolved Question: Ratio Comparison Problems?

Hi, just a few questions. Re-asked for lack of answers. This is a question from a practitioners' standpoint, not a theorists' (joeyv). 1. Market Adaptation: US --> Foreign markets The Gurus' (Buffett, Lynch, Graham, etc) methodologies were designed specifically for US stocks. How do i adapt the ratios and criteria for foreign markets that have traded at historically different ratios from the S&P, DJI etc? 2. Reference Period: How do i tell if something is historically "cheap"? e.g. XYZ has historically traded at far higher PE ratios. Comparing to historical P/E, XYZ is a BUY, but when looking at it in light of it's strategic prospects, its quite bad with the possibility the new P/E might be here to stay or receive worse. :| 3. No realistic peers to compare with: ---> No accurate industry comparisons When comparing ratios, many of the firms have no realistic peers with similar revenue compositions, or comparable geographies. e.g. a Singaporean newspaper firm with a very diverse revenue composition has no realistic peers because of the unique situation (media is essentially state-controlled), revenue composition (firm does media, property development, website management and a bunch of other things). So in the general case, if you can't define a peer group, what do you compare against? 15 hours ago - 3 days left ROFLMAO joeyv! hahahahahaha :D

28 Jan 2012, 3:24 pm | click here to view more