The Media at Work

I rarely look at TV during the day, but last Friday I walked into a room where a financial news program was the focus of attention. The stock market had been down on the two previous days and it was dropping significantly on Friday. The talking heads called in their various experts, all of whom agreed that the bad news out there meant the market was doomed! One commentator asked: “Is this the start of a big bear market?” to which the “expert” responded, “It sure looks that way!” Sorry, I don’t buy it. On Monday, one of my longstanding clients called in to ask if he should sell his stock positions because the bear market had started. In questioning him, I discovered that he is an avid fan of free financial news programs and owed his depressed state of mind to watching this chatter on television. Because the weather was so fine, I thought he should turn off the TV and go for a nice walk outside. It’s addictive to watch television news programs because, for the sake of ad revenue, they do all they can to keep you watching. Back in March, these same programs were telling us how rosy everything looked. Now we are being told the economy looks awful. I indicated in my April newsletter that I expected a market correction and that this might be the impetus to create more demand and move the market much higher. Well, here we are with a market correction, still in a bull market, and now it’s time for demand to pick up. In the beginning of the year, I indicated that there would be a gradual change in the economy, which is what is taking place. The economy, like the stock market, does not go up in a nice smooth fashion, but rather moves in fits and starts. Being patient pays off in the long run! Ed Mallon