Markets today are in emotional limbo. One week it’s a soft landing, the next it’s a credit scare. Tech rips higher, then gives it all back. Value pops on macro news, then stalls. Relief rallies fade. Pullbacks don’t break. We’re in a cycle where conviction is thin and positioning is reactive.

That’s why so many investors are asking the wrong question: is it time to own growth or value?

The truth is that binary thinking is outdated. It’s not about the label. It’s about the setup. The structure. The behavior. What looks like a value trap might be the next compounder with a spinoff catalyst. What looks like growth might be priced for perfection with insiders selling and margins peaking.

This article isn’t going to sell you a style box. It’s going to show you how to read the signs that matter and where the real edge is hiding now.

The Problem With Each

Growth isn’t dead, but it’s dangerously crowded. Everyone wants to own the winners. That’s fine until the trade gets saturated. Names like Nvidia and Microsoft are no longer being priced on execution. They’re priced on perfection. Multiples have expanded far faster than fundamentals, and investors are ignoring the basic principle: at some point, even great stories run out of room.

This is the opposite of what worked in the early innings of the AI boom. Super Micro Computer was unloved, underfollowed, and structurally misunderstood. That’s what made it powerful. The payoff came not from hype, but from the setup.

On the other hand, value isn’t broken; it’s just misused. Too many investors chase low multiples, thinking that’s enough. But cheap without change is just stagnation. The market is full of names trading at single-digit PEs with no strategic direction, no margin expansion, and no insider conviction. That’s not value. That’s a value trap.

What works is the combination: value plus a catalyst. Behavioral shifts, insider buying, new management, spinoffs, forced M&A. That’s where real opportunity lives. Not in the style box, but in the structural setup.

What Actually Works Now

Forget growth vs. value. In a market still running on liquidity fumes and narrative comfort, style isn’t the edge. Setup is. And that means looking for behavior, structure, and incentive alignment, because that’s where mispricing lives. Here’s the 3-part lens that works today.

1. Behavioral Inflection > Style

Alpha shows up when behavior changes long before screens catch it. That could be governance getting cleaned up, a board shakeup, or a new CEO with turnaround teeth. These aren’t just headlines. They’re signals that internal priorities have shifted.

Take (GT) . The stock was left for dead until Elliott came in, forced leadership change, and unlocked a roadmap to spin out non-core units. Governance reset, margin targets, and new board votes happened before Wall Street fully priced it in. That’s where the edge is.

2. Mispriced Optionality

We are looking for companies with hidden leverage to upside that isn’t reflected in the price. Optionality without paying for it. That can mean asset-rich holdcos, pre-spin stories, or businesses with strategic real estate, licensing, or underappreciated IP.

Look at (MSGS) For years, the market ignored the embedded value of its sports franchises. But those who tracked the optionality spinoff rumors, media rights, and M&A buzz caught the repricing before the crowd. Optionality is alpha when it’s misunderstood.

3. Insider Incentives > ETF Inclusion

Being in the S&P means nothing if insiders are selling. The real edge is when the people running the company are buying. Especially when it happens quietly, consistently, and before a change event. Arconic is a perfect example. Before its takeout, insiders ramped up accumulation even as the broader market ignored the name. That signal told the story before any banker pitch deck did. This isn’t market timing. It’s pattern recognition. The best setups aren’t about labels like “growth” or “value”; they’re about structural positioning, behavioral inflection, and incentive alignment. That’s where capital compounds. Everything else is style-box noise.

How We're Positioning

We don’t chase style boxes. We chase setups. Right now, we’re leaning into misunderstood growth where KPIs are quietly improving but investor attention is low; think early-stage AI infrastructure and niche software with pricing power. On the value side, we focus only on where structure is set to change. That means spinoffs, breakups, or management turnover that can unlock real multiple expansion. And for takeover potential, we screen for insider buying paired with clean, underleveraged balance sheets. These aren’t just cheap stocks; they’re setups hiding in plain sight. When capital structure tightens, governance shifts, or optionality is being mispriced by the market, that’s when we act. Positioning today isn’t about growth or value. It’s about recognizing behavior before the crowd does.

The Edge Isn’t In Style, It’s In Setup

Growth and value are just marketing terms. They make for clean categories, but they rarely tell you where the money is made. What drives returns is structure, setup, behavior, and dislocation. The edge right now isn’t in buying what looks cheap or what grew fastest last quarter. It’s in spotting the turn before others see it. When governance shifts, incentives align, or the market misprices optionality, that’s your cue. This isn’t a market that rewards style loyalty. It rewards pattern recognition. Look past the labels. Focus on change. That’s where real alpha lives.