You worked hard over your lifetime to build a nest egg in order to fund your retirement. Doesnt it make sense that now that youre retired your money should work as hard for you as you worked for it? When you were working, you were accustomed to receiving a raise in pay each year. Why should that end now, just because you are retired? It doesnt have to, because investors today have the good fortune and opportunity to invest in blue-chip 'Dividend Champions' (companies that have increased their dividend every year for at least 25 years) which are trading at historically low valuations

First, the title of this article does not refer to people who use stop losses in their investing strategies. Instead, the title of this article refers to the actual status of the common stock that the stop loss is placed upon. Therefore, a specific definition of a loser is required for clarity. In general terms, our definition of a loser is a common stock that should not currently be owned in the first place. There are two primary reasons why this would be true. Either the company's fundamentals are permanently deteriorating, or the company?s stock price is irrationally overvalued.

We hope that this primer on valuing super fast growing companies provided insights into how the market can capitalize such enormous growth. It may not always make sense, but we feel it's valuable to be able to graphically see how the market values fundamentals. It's not always logical, or even fair, but if you look hard enough there usually is some logic that can be discovered. The important thing is that statistics alone do not adequately tell the true whole story, in our opinion.

To us, the evidence is crystal clear, fundamentals provide a critical perspective that investors should be aware of. Possessing a clear and accurate picture of how well a business has performed on an operating basis is a vital component towards making sound and prudent investment decisions. Contrary to what some might argue, the fundamental operating results of the business tend to persist. The nature of a company's business and the industry it operates in can be reliably evaluated and understood.

These ten examples are based on our article: A primer on valuation: Testing the Wisdom of Ben Graham's Formula (part one) published on 2/08/2011. These represent just a few examples of many we could provide. Ben?s formula works because it is sound. The orange line on each logarithmic F.A.S.T. Graph below represents earnings multiplied by Ben Graham's formula. As you review each F.A.S.T. Graph note how the black price line tracks and correlates to Ben Graham's calculation of intrinsic value. In some cases, the correlation is almost perfect.

Ben Graham?s formula for valuing a company V* = EPS x (8.5 + 2g) established a solid foundation for future value investors to build upon. The small ?g? in the formula represents your reasonably expected 7 to 10 year growth rate. Consequently, Ben Graham?s formula was forward-looking. In this article we looked at modern historical performance in order to test the validity of this famous value formula. Remarkably, the formula proves itself to being very precise when applied in the real world to businesses that grow earnings between zero and 5% per annum.