I analyze whether or not market-wide investor sentiment induces stock mispricing, by affecting the boldness of predictions of firms' long-term earnings growth. I predict that bullish market-wide sentiment induces investors to aggressively separate firms with high growth futures from others, and...

Studies have shown that firm asset growth predicts cross-sectional stock returns. Firms that shrink their assets earn superior returns while firms that substantially expand their assets incur poor returns in the following years. I show that the negative asset growth often implies poor operating...