‘Investors sell …’ – What a crock!

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?

Comments

[Bob Hobert]

Exactly. What a hoot. I turn on Bloomberg and CNBC occasionally and mostly recoil at the inane drivel that passes for financial commentary. It is worse on the other "news" shows. And for pure Deliverance quality entertainment sans the banjo music there's Cramer, at which point I rest my case that you are wasting your time watching the financial rubes on the boob tube.

[bill tozer]

I think is necessary to differentiate now between investors and traders. I once dabbled at trading, following the minute to minute ups and downs, buy and sell, dump now, buy now, shorts.....heck, I spent hours at it until one day with my eyes glued to the screen it occurred to me that after all the effort, record keeping and taxes, I made less than I would if I had put it all in a index fund and spent the day on the coast. Today I am an investor....little bit every month into index stock funds (large cap, large cap value, small cap, small cap value, and International funds. Own very few individual stocks, especially after buying international cement companies just as the world economy went south. Funny now, not there. To stay on topic of buying and selling to each other, I can say one never loses or makes a penny in the markets...until they sell. To each his own. There is now blood in the streets....might put in a little bit more the next few months.

[Douglas Keachie]

The story is not that investors buy and sell. That part is pretty obvious. What makes the story is that the investors are selling for less, and the buyers are buying for less. I do agree that the so-called "reasons" they give as "explanations" are mostly sheer hogwash.

[George Rebane]

DougK - I would disagree. The reporting is one-sidedly silly by continually identifying that investors form only one side of the transaction - 'Investors were getting out of the stock market and into bonds today.' Of course we know that investors stayed in the market, and just agreed to buy/sell for more/less. Reporting that 'Investors decided that the market was overvalued today.' is more accurate report, however informationless it might be to the reader.

[Account Deleted]

Tom Sullivan is an excellent source for accurate info on the ups and downs of the market. He too, is often critical of the nonsense of the talking heads when analyzing the day's market news. He will point out the goings on of the market in a much more in-depth way. He also has a lot of back ground on how the financial system actually works. Often, he points out the duplicity and hipocracy of both the Rs and Ds in what they espouse vs. the reality of the financial system. Almost no one else (including Cavuto) spell out what a total failure to remedy the ills of the market as well as being a disaster to our financial system, the Dodd/Frank Financial bill has been. Of course, Frank thought Fannie/Freddie were in fine shape and the Rs were evil to "attack" a poor helpless crook that swindled millions from the tax payers. We are now on the hook for an unlimited bailout of the housing mess, thanks to the Dems.