Value Investing: Art vs. Science

Some say value investing is both an art and a science. It is an art because successful investing requires judgement honed from experience, an understanding of history to recognize patterns and the emotional fortitude to shield against psychological biases.  Investing is also a science because cold hard analytics can be applied. However, when investors focus too narrowly on any single metric, there is a temptation to rush to judge the attractiveness of a security or portfolio.