What is the magic formula investing tool?

Asked by: Jaime Hermiston  |  Last update: February 11, 2026
Score: 4.8/5 (68 votes)

The Magic Formula is an investment strategy developed by Joel Greenblatt that guides you to selecting high-quality, undervalued stocks. It relies on two key metrics: Earnings Yield and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) to find companies that are not only cheap but also fundamentally strong.

How does magic formula investing work?

It relies on quantitative screens of companies and stocks, and is designed to beat the stock market's average annual returns using the S&P 500 to represent the market return. Put simply, it works by ranking stocks based on their price and returns on capital.

How is the magic formula calculated?

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.

What is the magic formula study?

A 2022 study of the stock market in Norway found that the magic formula generates risk-adjusted excess returns. Over the sample period (2003-2022) the strategy had a CAGR of 21.56%. However, these returns may not be achievable in real-world conditions due to the impact of transaction costs.

What is the magic formula score?

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).

How To Learn Anything, Anywhere - Elon Musk

36 related questions found

What is the magic formula function?

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.

What is the magic formula for success?

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.

What are the metrics of the magic formula?

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).

What is the purpose of the magic method?

Magic methods are special methods which override PHP's default's action when certain actions are performed on an object. All methods names starting with __ are reserved by PHP. Therefore, it is not recommended to use such method names unless overriding PHP's behavior.

What is the magic book test trick?

The "Page, Line and Word" trick uses two or three spectators, handing one a book (the "reader"), another an envelope, and the third pencil and paper (the "writer"). The writer is asked to imagine opening the book and selecting a word at random, and then writes down the page, line and word number they imagined.

What is a coffee can portfolio?

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.

What stocks does Joel Greenblatt own?

In Joel Greenblatt's current portfolio as of 2024-09-30, the top 5 holdings are SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), Gotham Enhanced 500 ETF (GSPY), NVIDIA Corp (NVDA), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), Apple Inc (AAPL), not including call and put options. Joel Greenblatt did not buy any new stocks in the current portfolio.

How to calculate the magic formula?

This is how the two Magic Formula investing ratios are calculated: Return on invested capital (ROIC) = EBIT / (net working capital + net fixed assets). Earnings yield = EBIT / Enterprise value.

What is the 1 rule of investing?

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.

How does Dave Ramsey invest his money?

Ramsey often recommends allocating investments into four types of mutual funds: growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international funds. This diversification strategy helps protect against market volatility and ensures a balanced approach to retirement savings.

What is the 1 2 3 magic method?

1-2-3 Magic divides the parenting responsibilities into three straightforward tasks: controlling negative behavior, encouraging good behavior, and strengthening the child-parent relationship. The program seeks to encourage gentle, but firm, discipline without arguing, yelling, or spanking.

What is the purpose of magic tool?

Answer: The magic tool is used to apply advanced drawing effects to a drawing.

Which is the most important magic method?

__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)

This is the most common magic method. It initializes an object after it has been created with __new__ .

What is the magic formula system?

What Is the Magic Investing Formula? Screening stocks using the magic formula method is based on a rankings system. As developed by Greenblatt, this system uses three distinct criteria to rank companies: earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), earnings per share, and return on capital.

What is the best metric for volatility?

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.

What is the magic formula rank?

To calculate the Magic Formula ranking companies are ranked based on ROIC (with 1 being the highest ROIC) and earnings yield (where 1 signals the highest earnings yield).

What is the magic 5 rule?

According to relationship researcher John Gottman, the magic ratio is 5 to 1. What does this mean? This means that for every one negative feeling or interaction between partners, there must be five positive feelings or interactions. Stable and happy couples share more positive feelings and actions than negative ones.

What is the secret behind every success?

The essence of success lies in a combination of resilience, self-belief, and innovation. Successful individuals stand out by embracing risks, holding unwavering confidence in their abilities, and continually thinking outside the conventional norms.