Thursday, May 14, 2009

Market Watching

The big news out of Wall Street yesterday was another rough day for the stock market: The Dow Jones average and the S&P 500 index both lost more than 2 percent of their value.

But this doesn't mean we're retreating from the gains that have been posted in recent weeks. In fact, it probably doesn't mean much of anything at all. We're going to see a lot of turbulence in the markets as they get back on their feet, and we can't expect every day to be positive. To look at the bigger picture, the S&P 500 is still higher than it's been since the very early part of the year.

More importantly, there's no reason to react to the daily movement of the market. I realize I am breaking my own rule by even writing about the market today, but I would advise you not to pay attention to the day-to-day gyrations of the Dow and the S&P. We're in this for the long haul. All that you get by obsessively checking the Dow, or your own portfolio, every day - or even worse, every hour - is a bad case of indigestion.

No comments:

Post a Comment