Emotion is primarily about nothing, and much of it remains about nothing to the end.
George Santayana
Forget Main Stream Media Unless You Love Losing
If CNN, FOX, CNBC, etc., are the primary sources you base your investment decisions on, perhaps it is time for a change in strategy. These outlets focus on amplifying the “noise factor”. Their only purpose is to ensure the crowd will overreact to any event.
We live in a world of information overkill, and 90% or more of it is garbage. Conceivably, this is why experts focussing on the fundamentals cannot understand why this market continues to surge. Fundamental data is provided in a standard format, so everyone with access to it draws the same conclusion.
With EPS and other data being manipulated, the little value fundamentals once offered are entirely negated. Perhaps, this also explains why hedge funds are performing so poorly; except for a few standouts, investors lost, and management was the only one getting rich, but that is a story for another day.
But Dillard’s returns—like most other hedge fund managers—failed to keep pace in the post-Great Recession bull market. Investors exited. In February, when assets slid below $500 million, Dillard pulled the plug. “It has recently become clear to both of us that sometimes there is a logical conclusion to even a good thing,” he and his partner, Raj Venkatesan, wrote to clients. Full Story
Money managers ( and other financial experts) are no different from the average Joe; they place too much value on useless information.
Hedge fund titans once ran their firms like elite private clubs, picking who made it past the velvet rope and how much they would pay for access to the supercharged performance. Years of poor performance have now led several funds to consider something more like general admission.
“I see the herd mentality among hedge funds every day,” Roslyn Zhang, a managing director at China Investment Corporation, China’s sovereign wealth fund, said at the SkyBridge Alternatives, or SALT, hedge fund conference in Las Vegas last month. Describing how some funds spend “two seconds” on one theme before deciding to put investor money behind the idea, she added: “We pay 2 and 20 for treatment like this. I am reflecting that maybe we are not making the right decision. Full Story
For the world’s top hedge fund managers, 2015 was a fantastic year, with an astounding amount of money made. Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine released its annual review of how the top managers fared last year, and the tally for the group of 25 came in at nearly $13 billion, up 10 per cent over 2014. That figure would likely grab headlines in any year, but considering that it was the worst year for funds since 2011—with Atlantic Investment Management founder Alexander Roepers telling the Wall Street Journal, “Everything went wrong”—those totals seem particularly enormous. Full Story
If hedge funds fared so poorly in 2015, then 2016 will be even worse, and 2017 could be a killer (as in Kaput) for many of the large funds. Most money managers are too reckless, know nothing, and follow each other. That is why so many funds are bailing out of NFLX and AAPL now when it makes more sense to buy than sell. Thus just like the masses, they sell when it is time to buy and buy when its time to sell.
The world’s largest hedge funds cut their holdings in Netflix and Apple more aggressively than any other stocks in the second quarter, according to a new report.
The 50 biggest hedge funds sold $2 billion worth of Netflix shares and $1.8 billion in Apple stock between April and June, per an analysis of regulatory disclosures by FactSet. Full Story
More Examples of Main Stream Media Distortion
Mass Media states markets were crashing in Aug 2015; After the Media made a huge issue of this and said the world was about to end, lo and behold, the markets bottomed instead of crashing.
Mass Media once again started beating the drums of fear in Jan and Feb of 2016; Once again, they ended up biting the dust as the markets soared higher instead of crashing. Instead of embracing the pullback as a buying opportunity, they viewed it through the lens of fear. On both occasions, we openly stated that all sharp corrections had to be visualised through a bullish lens. Fear sells, which is why the media loves making a mountain out of a molehill.
Brexit:
Britain’s vote on Friday to leave the EU has sparked widespread turmoil and uncertainty, forcing Prime Minister David Cameron to resign and wiping more than $2 trillion of value from global markets.
Another event was when the press took extreme delight in sowing the seeds of panic, and once again, they were made to look like fools. If you look back after the initial panic, the world moved on as it always does.
We could list countless more events; in each case, the outcome will always be the same; those that panic will lose, and those that remain calm will reap the rewards.
As long as Fiat money exists, any alarm event should be considered an opportunity. There is just too much noise in this world today. There is so much noise that it is tough to get a bearing on what is happening if you fixate on this nonsense. You need to look at everything disinterestedly to spot the main pattern. If you are drawn in by an event, you no longer think logically; your emotions are thinking for you.
Each of us makes his own weather and determines the colour of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits.
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Other Stories Of Interest
Stock Market Forecast for Next 3 months
Next Stock Market Crash Prediction
Dow theory no longer relevant-Better Alternative exists
Mass Media Turns Bullish: Stock Market Correction likely (Aug 19)
Crowd Control market Manipulation & Pensioners forced to Speculate (Aug 18)
