Is stop buying a stock/fund because its PE ratio is very high considered "to time the market"?

Question

The advise "Don't time the market" alludes to not operate on it merely because you think something is going to go up or down in short-term.
Let's suppose a small investor has a savings plan by which he invests a fixed amount each month. If that investor decides to stop buying a fund/stock/bond (not selling it, just not buying) because its PE ratio is "very high" (say, historical maximums), even if that means not buying it for a long time, is that "timing the market"?

Manziel · Accepted Answer

It depends what you do with the money instead. If you use it to buy other stocks with a low P/E ratio this would be value investing which is considered a good thing in current investment theory.

Martin Dawson · Answer

The other answer by @manziel said this:

It depends what you do with the money instead

This is absolutely not true.
Timing the market is purely taking money out of the stock market because you believe you can get in at a lower price due a crash coming. This is usually due to some belief by an investor who is a novice.
If everything in the stock market is overpriced and you take your money out and you leave it in cash you are not timing the market, you are simply not investing because prices are too high. For example, let's take it to the extreme, if all stock prices stay overvalued indefinitely you should be willing to never put money in a stock again due to it being overvalued. That is not timing the market.
There's a huge difference.
For example warren buffet does the latter. He will not invest in any stock if they are all overvalued. He's not timing the market by doing this.

Is stop buying a stock/fund because its PE ratio is very high considered "to time the market"?

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