Would Peter Lynch's investing style work in modern times?
Recently read Learn to Earn by Lynch, and it appears a lot of the information is no longer applicable. Specifically his thoughts on the retail investors having an advantage that Wall Street does not. Lynch talks about how the average person will comprehend macroeconomic trends from their personal experience. Ex. Target has been packed recently, the stock price is poised to rise. Or, I really like these Lulu Lemon leggings, the stock price will go up. My opinion is this style of thinking is outdated, or just inaccurate to begin with. This information is all publicly available, and you can't extrapolate your personal experience to the broader economic trends of a company. Thoughts?
Lmao. No.
Peter Lynch crushed it when Reg-FD wasn't yet put into place. He could literally ask CEOs 'will you make the quarter or not' and they'd answer honestly in a private meeting and he'd trade on that. With public equities, immediately dismiss any track record that starts pre-2000 before the rule was implemented (and effectively pre internet since it was such early days)...if you'd outperformed since 2000 in a material way that's impressive
Man owned 1500 stocks in his fund and did every style under the sun. There's a reason you don't see that much anymore (in past 20yrs), his approach would be nonsensical in a market that is far more efficient
Yeah that's sorta what I figured
Aside from what Sequoia has said, I think what Lynch says is broadly correct (cuz institutional investors have lots of limits to arbitrage), but can be terrible advice for average investors because it can be so easily misunderstood. People will deadass go out there and buy Dunkins stock cuz they like the doughnuts. A good company isn't necessarily a good investment because it needs to have a good price. The average investor should just index anyway
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