Warren Buffett famously said that the distinction between value investing and growth investing is not real, because value investors want growth and growth investors do not want to overpay. Critics echo this point, stating that the distinction is false and was created by academics in the early 1960s and has subsequently been taken up by the investment consulting community. Nevertheless, more than 80% of our CFA Institute Financial NewsBrief readers think there is a difference between value investing and growth investing, with the most popular distinction being that value investors focus on fundamentals and growth investors on momentum.
　　Equal numbers of this group of respondents say there is a difference in preferred time horizons and that value investors focus on mean reversion whereas their growth peers focus on idiosyncratic risk. A smaller minority believe that differences in required rates of return divide the two investment styles. Most surprising is that only one in six respondents agree with Buffett’s view that there is not much difference at all.