My simplistic view of the stock market, the one my muddled brain is able to wrap around, is to imagine that of the waterfalls at the Continental Divide at Glacier National Park in Montana. Numerous rivers, all converging into to one. Hedge funds, pension funds, investment firms, your own 401k, option flows, you name it.........and share buybacks.
Throughout the recovery, the amount of cash being held on corporate balance sheets was in some instances, astounding, leaving many investors wondering if/when the cash would be deployed.
Well if you haven't noticed, they have been deploying more and more. Just imagine the many streams you see in this image to the right. One is M&A which can be the acquisition of a company to compliment ones existing structure OR a direct competitor which is a plus for a stock by making your space that much smaller. Another stream, a small one, is (hopefully) R&D, another stream represents cash being returned to shareholders via higher dividends and las
