Everyone Knew It!

Market Comments

The S&P and Dow both moved lower today as Carl Icahn noted that most stocks (other than the ones he owns of course) are generally overvalued.

Unemployment claims, existing home sales and the Philly Fed manufacturing index all came in better than expected which probably helped halt a deeper selloff after what initially seemed like a no-brainer rally catalyst yesterday. Obviously the decision not to taper raised a few more questions which the markets will have to answer in the coming weeks.

While stocks were relatively quiet, here was a ton of noise stemming from the investment community and boy those Monday morning quarterbacks are always my favorite.  Countless headlines were streaming by today; their authors declaring that they were right and really thought that the Fed was going to wait, but they gave into the herd at the last minute believing that the taper was imminent. Blah blah blah

I will be the first to tell you that I was one of the eariest ones to say that tapering would start in late 2013 (most likely around September-November) and it looks like I was wrong; period.  Heck, I said it in February here at the Zacks Roundtable.

The worst mistakes we can make are those that we don’t learn from, the second worst are those that we can’t even admit to!

While I’m poking a little fun at all the bloggers, wannabe traders and analysts that overload us with mostly useless information and sales gimmicks, there are folks who not only know what they are talking about.   These folks actually offer us great resources and tools to get to the bottom of what’s going on in the marketplace and they are worth listening to.

Finding them is another story…

I was chatting with an old friend today who’s a former financial advisor with Fidelity.   She wants to get more into active trading and admitted to me that she has no idea where to start or even what to look at when she turns her computer on.

As I was helping her with some of her questions I realized that her feelings and struggles are probably shared by some or most of you as well….

Just because someone works in finance and even helps investors allocate their portfolios, they still may not have a clue (or want to know) what’s moving the market on a daily basis and what stocks to be trading which way.  I say this because I never want any of you to feel intimidated or afraid to ask questions about what we do.   I’ll also make it a point to explain things a little better and recommend good resources for you (zacks.com is a great place to start).

I know that my colleagues and plenty of other good, informed people out there are not only willing to lend a hand, but truly want you to succeed and know exactly why we do the trades we do.

Markets will not be getting less complicated and I suspect more volatile in the coming months, so it will be increasingly important for all of us to be on the same page, helping one another cut through the bull and get to the good stuff.

I’m not here to brag that I’m some magic man that never loses a trade, but I (and my colleagues) can assure you quality information and sound investment plans that range is risk tolerance and time duration.

Looking forward to this coming earnings season!