Tuesday, June 15, 2010

CONFESSIONS OF A BUSINESS NEWS JUNKY

Hi, my name is Bill and I'm a business news junky. I used to zone out for hours in front of a leading cable business news channel. I was addicted and it nearly destroyed my life, or at least my discipline towards investing. I got caught up in "Breaking News" and speculating on how it would affect my investments. It lead to lots of unwarranted anxiety and some bad investment moves.

So what is the lesson here? The lesson is reacting to "news" from financial media outlets is a loser's game. Most likely this information is only "news" to you. If you see something on one of the business news channels or read it on one of the major financial publications, chances are millions of others have read it too, or knew about it even before it hit the news media. It's ridiculous to think that something you read or hear from the financial media gives you a leg up in the information game. More than likely, the stock is already reflecting the information by the time you decide to move on the "news". It's a mistake to get chased out of stocks because of a single news event that the media trumpets as being important. chances are, that news event is some trivial piece of information whose primary value is to fill printed space or air time.

Don't fall in to the trap of becoming a business news junky. Better to avoid overexposure to daily business news and concentrate more on the long term prospects of your investments.

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