The Magic Formula Criteria
Greenblatt's magic formula is based on two key criteria: earnings yield and return on capital. The formula aims to identify companies that are both cheap and profitable, with the belief that these stocks have the highest potential for outsized returns.
Although there are mutual funds with no minimums, most retail mutual funds require a minimum initial investment of between $500 to $5,000, with institutional class funds and hedge funds requiring minimums of at least $100,000 or more.
The magic formula investing strategy is based on a simple principle: buy good companies at good prices. It uses two key financial metrics to identify these companies: return on capital (ROC) and earnings yield (EY).
Calculating the Magic Formula
To calculate the Magic Formula score, you separately rank all stocks by EBIT/EV. For example the company with the highest EBIT/Enterprise Value would get a value of 1, the next best 2 and so forth.
Requirements for Magic Formula Investing
Since Greenblatt's magic formula only applies to companies with market capitalizations greater than $50 million, it excludes small-cap stocks. The remainder will all be large companies but excludes financial companies, utility companies, and non-U.S. companies.
Stockopedia explains Magic Formula Score
An overall ranking for each stock is created by combining the rank of a company's Return on Capital vs the market (its quality) with the rank of its Earnings Yield (its cheapness).
Volatility refers to how quickly markets move, and it is a metric that is closely watched by traders. More volatile stocks imply a greater degree of risk and potential losses. Standard deviation is the most common way to measure market volatility, and traders can use Bollinger Bands to analyze standard deviation.
A coffee can portfolio is a long-term bet on certain stocks that have extremely good promoter lineage, have consistently performed over the years, have a long runway for growth and are backed by good management to name a few.
Invest in Dividend Stocks
Last but certainly not least, a stock portfolio focused on dividends can generate $1,000 per month or more in perpetual passive income. However, at an example 4% dividend yield, you would need a portfolio worth $300,000, which is a substantial upfront investment.
The 90/10 investment rule is a rule of thumb for setting up your investment portfolio. The rule is relatively simple, advocating for splitting your portfolio, placing 90% of your assets into a low-cost S&P 500 index fund and the remaining 10% into short-term government bonds.
The Magic Formula y(x) typically produces a curve that passes through the origin x = y = 0, reaches a maximum, and subsequently tends to a horizontal asymptote.
MAGIC FORMULA OF ATTITUDE
In a nutshell, it is your 'Attitude' which determines success. You can achieve only what you think you can achieve. The attitude towards life – the strength of character of getting up after a fall, dusting yourself and starting afresh once again – determines how successful you become.
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With stocks, it's a measure of how much its price changes in a given period of time. When a stock that normally trades in a 1% range of its price on a daily basis suddenly trades 2-3% of its price, it's considered to be experiencing “high volatility.”
A beta coefficient of less than 1 means that a stock tends to be less volatile than the overall market. Utility and real estate stocks are two examples of industries that typically have low betas. A beta coefficient of more than 1 means that a stock tends to be more volatile than the overall market.
Determine company's earnings yield = EBIT / enterprise value. Determine company's return on capital = EBIT / (net fixed assets + working capital). Rank all companies above chosen market capitalization by highest earnings yield and highest return on capital (ranked as percentages).
The Magic Formula, as explained by Joel Greenblatt in his book The Little Book that Beats the Market, involves ranking stocks based on two metrics: earnings yield (EBIT/enterprise value) and return on capital (EBIT/invested capital).
You can calculate the magic number for your SaaS business by subtracting the last quarter's annual recurring revenue (ARR) from the current quarter's ARR and dividing by your total customer acquisition cost (CAC) (your total sales and marketing spend) from the previous quarter.
Warren Buffett and his mentor, Ben Graham, championed Rule #1 for one fundamental reason: minimizing loss. By minimizing losses, even in subpar investments, you increase your chances of finding winning investments over time.
Earnings yield is the 12-month earnings divided by the share price. Earnings yield is the inverse of the P/E ratio. Earnings yield is one indication of value; a low ratio may indicate an overvalued stock, or a high value may indicate an undervalued stock.