Needless to say, it’s been a tough 3 weeks. Investor psychology continues to dominate the course of the markets these past 3 weeks. Negative sentiments and problems in Europe are continuing to drag down the markets.
The last couple of weeks have been pretty brutal for the stock market. The volatility has skyrocketed and a lot of it has to do with irrational fears about Greece. I have said it once and I will keep saying it. Worries about Greece and Europe are completely overblown.
As crazy as this may sound, I am in the process of testing out what I’d like to call, “The Alphabet Fund”.
It’s interesting to see how the psychology of the markets change on a daily basis. Just a week ago, everyone was talking about doom-and-gloom with Greece and Europe. Now, all of a sudden, investors are focused on the improving US economy. I think I’ve been really pounding my fist about how I felt the US economy has been steadily improving this year. It’s nothing new — all the data has been pointing to that. However, investors will only see what they want to see. Last week – Greece and the end of the world as we know it. Today, the improving economy.
For those of you who didn’t jump in on Thurs and Friday, when the market tanked, there’s still hope. Yes, the market was incredible today. European countries decided to form a $1 trillion plan to defend the Euro and that caused the Dow to jump 400 points. So what does that mean for you and your stock portfolio?
It’s just ridiculous to see the markets drop the past week. I’m always one to believe that fundamentals and performance of a company, not irrational fears, should be the basis of your investment decisions. Unfortunately, the price swings on the NASDAQ and DOW are ultimately controlled by panic-sellers in the midst of a [...]
Wow, I can’t believe the Dow was down 900 points today at one point. And the reason being? GREECE!?! What the heck?! It’s absurd to me that Greece, which is thousands of miles away, with little to no impact on our country, can have this kind of effect on our stock market. It’s plain ridiculous and I believe traders are using Greece as an excuse to sell.
Stock market has been pretty volatile the past couple of weeks. That means everyone should stay nimble. The 3 key elements this week that may shift the momentum of the markets are: Greece, Goldman Sachs and Economic Reports. Warren Buffet did the whole market a huge favor by putting his reputation on the line for Goldman. I think that takes a lot of guts considering that the whole SEC and the US Government are bashing GS. Buffet put the whole financial sector at ease with his endorsement — at least, for the short term…
Back in the year 1998, I remember my parents telling me to buy Nortel Networks Stock, hold it for years, and let it keep doing 2-for-1 stock splits until you’re rich. They said the same thing about Cisco, Intel, and Yahoo. If I listened to them, I’d be in pretty big trouble. So why exactly does the ole buy-and-hold strategy fail these days? Well, I think it’s pretty simple actually. Two things: Technology and Competition.
It’s definitely getting harder and harder to invest in the stock market these days. Individual investors are at such a disadvantage compared to investment professionals or stock gurus like John Paulson, George Soros or Warren Buffet due to the lack of resources, access to information and just general investing experience. It’s not that the individual investor can’t get access to these public documents or information — but rather, this information is not easily obtained. For example, do you really expect an average investor to spend time to attend every shareholder meeting of every company they’ve invested in? Or how about listening to every single conference call of every company they have in their portfolio? And those super long and boring 10-K and 10-Q’s SEC filings? And even if the average investor DOES wind up reading ALL of this info, will they truly understand it? Does every individual investor have access to or subscribe to analyst reports (which are usually pretty expensive)? Yes, these documents are all available but they all come with a hefty price in either time or money. Not only do you need the time to absorb this information, but will an average investor truly apply this information meaningfully to their investment decisions? Let’s just say that mastering the business model of every company they own stock in is quite a daunting task — even for investment bankers.
