š Think Wall Street or sovereign funds are the marketās biggest whales? Think again. The real whale of the past decade has been... corporate buybacks.
Since 2012, the S&P 500 has shed nearly 30 billion sharesāa ~10% reductionāvia buybacks. Apple alone has retired a quarter of its float. š¤Æ
This āreverse IPOā has turned the S&P into a deflationary asset. Forget pre/post-QE ā the real valuation shift is pre- vs. post-buyback era.