Itsallaguess wrote:I'd probably go beyond saying it's 'virtually useless' for the purpose of making decisions and actually say that it's 'downright dangerous' for the purpose of making decisions, if that's ever what people actually think they can usefully use the metric for....
Two different ways of looking at the same thing - it's not uncommon for a tool to be both useless for a particular job and dangerous if one nevertheless tries to use it for that job. For instances, I can think of quite a few examples involving chainsaws or blowtorches...
Itsallaguess wrote:I'll agree that within someone's personal investment-sphere, they could use the metric to allow some 'what-if' scenarios to be played out, ...
I'm not certain who you're agreeing with there, but it isn't me! My last post's only 'what-if' scenario (about the SSE share price being ten times what it actually is) was a demonstration of the metric's uselessness for making current decisions, not a demonstration of a possible use for it...
Itsallaguess wrote:... but as soon as people start bringing the metric into open discussion in terms of wanting to compare their holdings with anyone else's, then as you say, it becomes useless, and I'd suggest misleading, as a historical price paid is simply that - a historical price....
Agreed - I can use it to evaluate how good my past decisions have been from a growing-income point of view, but the resulting evaluations are of no relevance to anyone else!
Gengulphus