Preface
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
The famous opening words of A Tale of Two Cities sum up the frustrations of many investors. The local sharemarket has had a dazzling run, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index up around 40 per cent between June 2012 and September 2014. As a result, large numbers of stocks look to be very expensive. It has become hard for sharebuyers to find companies that appear to offer value. Yet, as I write this, markets keep rising.
In the words of Max Mason, writing in the Australian Financial Review in August 2014:
Finding value in the Australian sharemarket is becoming increasingly like walking a wild path in the Amazon jungle with a machete — there's a lot to cut through to find El Dorado. ...
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