George Rebane
Time to vent. One of today’s financial reporters again comes out with – “U.S. stocks sank in afternoon trading as investors worried about policymakers’ ability to contain Europe’s debt crisis.” (28sep11 WSJ) You read this kind of pabulum constantly in the financial press. ‘Investors believe X, therefore they sell’, ‘Investors look forward to Y, therefore they buy.’
As a long time investor in the stock and bond markets, I and my friends of similar persuasion always smile at the naifs who write such drivel. If the investors are selling or buying, who the hell are they selling to or buying from? The local public storage facility, United Van Lines, inmates of the nearby mental hospital, who?
No one has informed these ‘journalists’ that when investors sell, guess what?, other investors buy. And it would probably surprise those same keen observers of the markets that it also works the other way around.
Such pieces point out the uselessness of 95% of financial reporting. They spout the obvious (i.e. tautologies), or make up stuff when no one knows what’s happening. When the market goes down and I buy, what am I then? A potted plant?


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