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Yesterday's Headline:
Dow Jones closes down 400 points from 24 hours earlier.
Equally true alternative headlines:
Dow Jones closes up 100 points from 26 hours earlier.
Dow Jones's close yesterday is a 3% return over the last calendar year.
Dow Jones's close yesterday is a 17% total return over the last two years.
Dow Jones's close yesterday is a 6% total loss over the last three years.
Dow Jones's close yesterday is a 1% total loss over the last five years.
Dow Jones's close yesterday is a 7% total return over the last ten years.
Dow Jones's close yesterday is a 96% total return over the last 15 years.
Dow Jones's close yesterday is a 260% total return over the last 20 years.
Dow Jones's close yesterday is a 1130% total return over the last 30 years.
Working in the industry I do, I am surrouned by people who all are smart enough to know they're investing for the long run and then are stupid enough to spend all their time talking about the short run.
Yes, there are relatively small groups of people for whom intra-day and even intra-picosecond changes in the market are important. But for the vast majority of us, intra-year changes in the market should hardly be worth our attention.
(This is not me saying one SHOULD be invested in the market, just that for most of us once in, there's no value in watching the stock price every day.) And that those who do have reason to care about such short term movements, they really need to remember that they're the exception not the rule.
Stop reporting as value what is actually volatility.
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