More Faith in the Future

“Every decision is risky; it is the commitment of existing resources for an uncertain and unknown future.” – Peter Drucker

This quote reminds me of three things about life:

Number 1: Risk is a way of life. There is no way to avoid it in any world. Our job is to assess and choose the risks that we believe will pay the most (or at least harm us).

Number 2: We must decide to do something. To do nothing is really a decision to do something – nothing. Furthermore, when we decide we must be committed to it.

Number 3: The future is uncertain and unknown. But would we have it any other way? That is exactly what brings the adventure to life, isn’t it? The upside resides only in the unknown.

It is always amazing to see studies like the one Franklin Templeton did over the last three years in which they surveyed 1000 people to see how they thought the stock market had performed. In all three years (2009, 2010, 2011) half or more of the respondents said the S&P 500 had ended “down or flat” for each of those three years. The reality? 2009 +26.5%, 2010 +15.1% and 2011 +2.1%. So maybe they did not miss it by much last year, but the point is there is a negative bias among most Americans when it comes to the economy. This is because bad news sells advertising. Therefore Americans are inundated with bad news which shapes our view … More >>>

Ways to Monitor the Stock Market

I like investing, and I like everything about the stock market in particular. But I find that many people get confused and don’t really know what to look for when they have to pay attention to the stock market.

Of course, if you read the news at night, they might tell you what the Dow Jones Industrial Average did that day, whether it went up or down, but that doesn’t really give you an overall view of how the market is. do it on a certain day.

In this article I want to spend a few minutes discussing some other things that you should pay attention to besides the Dow Jones index which will give you a broader picture of what the market has done on a particular day.

So the first thing to consider besides DOW is the S&P 500. This is an index fund consisting of 500 of the best stocks chosen by the good people at Standard and Poors. When people say “Stock Market” many times they refer to the S&P 500. This is a pretty good indicator of what the market is doing as a whole. Also, most evening shows and radio news will mention this index every night.

Next you have to pay attention to TRIN, which is a trading index, because it tries to measure the volume of trades carried out on a particular day. If TRIN moves from above 1.20 to below 70 for any day, it usually means that the stock market … More >>>