Monday, March 12, 2007
Confidence
In todays world there must be something that makes sure people keep negative attitudes about life. Sure, the US and Global economies might not be at their best, but the last Dow crash and prior drops must have really causes some problems in the minds of investors.
On Yahoo Finance a poll is under way. The current poll question is: The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 4.5% in February. Where will it be at year-end?
Higher
Lower
Where it is now
Now, Yahoo Finance, in my opinion doesnt represent investing/economic professionals like a site such as Bloomberg or Economist.com would. Both of those sites are niche, dedicated only to finance (bloomberg) and world events (economist).
The 25948 people who have responded already to this poll have stated:
Higher 52%
Lower 24%
Where it is now 25%
I think this is the perfect example of what the media can do to the thought process of the general public. People who read Yahoo Finance are probably ordinary people just reading about the business news, and not Hedge Fund managers with $500 Million dollars under their belt.
I think this poll best shows what we have been conditioned to think after the market instability ranging from year 2000 to today. The last 7 years have given a return of just 7% on the dow. Mind you this isn’t 7% per year, its just 7%. In a money market fund, you probably would’ve earned around 20% total.
These last 7 years have been terrible, and have killed our spirits about everything. Think positive, and try to look for short term profits. Unfortunately, one person cannot control the markets so other people’s opinions do matter. Don’t pick stocks that move with the general markets, you dont want other people’s business to trouble yours.