The indexes for Friday, 11 November, showed the market going up, varying between 3.78% and 5.36%.
However, my portfolio of mostly mutual funds went down 2.44%.
Could it be that the short view is more optimistic than the long view? That short term view is optimistic about the economy but that the long term view is pessimistic?
We’ll see next year.
Showing posts with label Dow Jones Average. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dow Jones Average. Show all posts
Monday, November 14, 2016
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
EU Vote and markets: false linkage
Phil Anderson wrote an interesting article in the Duluth Reader about the linkage between the Brexit vote and the reactions of stock markets. See
http://duluthreader.com/articles/2016/07/06/7525_speculating_on_the_eu_vote.
I’ve often wondered how the stock markets could turn on a dime based on some event or another. It seems more that commentators need to justify their salaries rather than provide insight for investors. Oops! That should be traders! Anderson describes investors those who are in for the long haul. Traders now will sell stocks within seconds of buying them.
I remember crossing the old Broadway bridge over the Mississippi River in the late ‘70s when the market news was a new high on the New York Stock Exchange of 54 million shares. Today, 2016-07-13, the NYSE volume was 836,762,854 shares; a week ago it was 1,050,701,150 (Wall St. Journal, http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3021-tradingdiary2.html). That’s about 20 times what it was over 30 years ago. Probably the big difference is online trading, then you had to call your broker who then placed the order on a teletype.
Still, I agree with Phil Anderson, how can so many people be in lockstep because of certain events?
http://duluthreader.com/articles/2016/07/06/7525_speculating_on_the_eu_vote.
I’ve often wondered how the stock markets could turn on a dime based on some event or another. It seems more that commentators need to justify their salaries rather than provide insight for investors. Oops! That should be traders! Anderson describes investors those who are in for the long haul. Traders now will sell stocks within seconds of buying them.
I remember crossing the old Broadway bridge over the Mississippi River in the late ‘70s when the market news was a new high on the New York Stock Exchange of 54 million shares. Today, 2016-07-13, the NYSE volume was 836,762,854 shares; a week ago it was 1,050,701,150 (Wall St. Journal, http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3021-tradingdiary2.html). That’s about 20 times what it was over 30 years ago. Probably the big difference is online trading, then you had to call your broker who then placed the order on a teletype.
Still, I agree with Phil Anderson, how can so many people be in lockstep because of certain events?
Sunday, September 09, 2012
Quote of the day: watering the weeds and pulling the flowers
In "The Dow has recovered, but what about 'The Doug?'" 2012-09-03, Jim Hightower wrote:
"[T]oday's corporate and political leaders are wretchedly-bad gardeners – by tending to the moneyed elites and ignoring America's workaday majority, they're watering the weeds and pulling the flowers. Where's that going to lead us?"
One of the ways that this is done is taxing dividends at a lower rate than wages. If we tax dividends at a lower rate to encourage investment, do we discourage work by taxing labor at a higher rate? Would anybody get dividends if there weren't people to do the work to generate those dividends?
Maybe I shouldn't complain. I am retired and derive a portion of my income from dividends and capital gains. But how hard am I working to do that? As for the dividends, my work consists either of having requested reinvestment by a financial institution or by typing a request to have accumulated dividends transferred to my bank account.
Sure, I'd like to pay less taxes, wouldn't we all? But if we don't pay taxes, would we have any kind of civil society?
"[T]oday's corporate and political leaders are wretchedly-bad gardeners – by tending to the moneyed elites and ignoring America's workaday majority, they're watering the weeds and pulling the flowers. Where's that going to lead us?"
One of the ways that this is done is taxing dividends at a lower rate than wages. If we tax dividends at a lower rate to encourage investment, do we discourage work by taxing labor at a higher rate? Would anybody get dividends if there weren't people to do the work to generate those dividends?
Maybe I shouldn't complain. I am retired and derive a portion of my income from dividends and capital gains. But how hard am I working to do that? As for the dividends, my work consists either of having requested reinvestment by a financial institution or by typing a request to have accumulated dividends transferred to my bank account.
Sure, I'd like to pay less taxes, wouldn't we all? But if we don't pay taxes, would we have any kind of civil society?
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