It's not exactly a surprise — there are a number of signs pointing to historic overextension not only at the top of the indexes, but throughout much of the market. And just as the laws of physics dictate how high something can be built without buckling over, there are loose axioms around how overextended valuations can get. Without the buttress of low yields as the economy recovers, price multiples are looking as if they're on an unstable foundation.
These market axioms are based on precedent. And for Jonathan Coleman, a small- and mid-cap portfolio manager at Janus Henderson, which manages $364 billion in assets, the past is illustrating how extreme investor euphoria — and the valuations it is pushing up — currently are.