One intersting thing that we hear a lot form investors is that they dont need macro analysis because they just pick stocks, or that they dont time the market but instead buy when stocks are cheap and sell when they are dear. Guess what folks…all this is macro analysis.
If you are investing in a railroad company then you should be looking at things like oil prices, coal prices, prices paid per ton on a rail car, etc. This lets you know what types of earnings predictability there will be. You should be looking at economic policy on rails as well as what the competitors are doing. Failing to do any of this and you are taking unnessecary risks.
Or take the bond investor who just looks at individual bonds. Well buddy if you are looking at interest rates and inflation then you are looking at the macro picture. As any macro trader or fixed income trader can tell you, all these things are both essential and macro.
