Problems charting the P/E 10, P/E 15, and P/E 20 levels

IntelligentValue

Hi All,

I recently read an article with charts by Carl Swenlin of DecisionPoint. He was showing the S&P 500 relative to its P/E 10 (undervalued), P/E 15 (fairly valued) and P/E 20 (overvalued) levels. The S&P 500 is now at a P/E of 25+, which is extremely overvalued. I believe that only one time before, in 2000, has the $SPX reached a P/E of more than 25 when earnings have not been plummetting.

I'm trying to duplicate Carl's chart for my readers, but I am unable to chart the three PE levels as Carl did. I have attached Carl's original chart (image01) and my chart with settings (image02). The P/E 10 is !GAAPSPX10, P/E 15 is !GAAPSPX15, and P/E 20 is !GAAPSPX20. In my chart, all three PE levels fall on top of each other behind the chart of the $SPX.

Ideas, please? Thank you.

Chris

IntelligentValue

Although I have been a member of StockCharts continuously since 2004, this is my first post to the discussion group. I appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

markd

Have you contacted Support?

It looks like the legend portion of the charting function can read the data for the separate indices, but the plotting portion only sees the first one for some reason. Somewhere, some number of characters from the end of the index name (at least the last 2 characters, 10, 15 and 20), are getting truncated, so when it goes to look for the data to plot, it finds whatever it plotted the first time and doesn't look any further. Just guessing. Support would know better.

gord

I noticed your chart has a left hand scale and Carl's chart does not. So you need to enter the P/E symbols as overlays using the "price same scale" function.

markd

Good eye, @gord ! That works. My bad.