Monday, October 20, 2008

Sell Low Buy High

Jim Cramer doesn't know what he's talking about.

Big surprise there. For years he's been telling his viewers to buy when the market is high, and now he says sell, when the market is low.

In the HBO show Deadwood, they have a name for people that follow the masses and let their emotions make decisions - Hoopleheads. In Deadwood, all the Hoopleheads pannic when they think their gold claims may become worthless. The non-Hoopleheads remain calm, and buy up gold claims on the cheap from the stupid Hoopleheads and later make fortunes.

Clearly, all Hoopleheads should steer clear of the stock market, in bad as well as good markets, because their lack of logical/critical thinking skills is sure to earn them fat losses in the long run. Please-- name someone who has made a fortune buying high and selling low. Here's a tip for the Hoopleheads: do the opposite of what Cramer says, and you may actually make some money.



What Cramer, and others like him do, is play on their viewers emotions and make cash selling ads on their shows. According to the New York Times, since the financial crisis has started, the number of Cramer's viewers has doubled. That must be good for Jim's portfolio! I don't normally like to give investment advice on this blog, but here's some for the Hoopleheads: Watch Oprah instead!

And please remember, no one knows what the market will do in the short term, all we do know is that the markets are forward looking, they are predictors of future earnings, not present. We also know that long term investments in stock markets are historically an effective method of building wealth. Don't lose that confidence, and above all don't panic.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, it's been a while since you've updated your blog... still around?