The dangers of the talking heads

[john_1]

Watching CNBC will make you dumber and poorer. Why? Because - although these experts are all well educated and smart (for the most part) - the underlying premise of these networks is that there is constant breaking news that you need to react to immediately. But in truth, it's nothing but a bunch of noise distracting you from the business of getting richer!

[Ninja]

John, you are mostly correct however if you are trading forex or indices intra day you need to be aware of certain info, so that you can trade it or ensure you avoid trading it. I was watching Bloomberg when Goldman news broke and banked 80 pips on the immediate slide on the Dow. I leave 90% of it, however you do need to be aware of certain news releases if you are trading for the short term.

[kwagga]

Media is allot like junk food. They dish it up on the fly, it can be convenient at times, but if you consume too much of the stuff it's bound to make you sick.

[#4]

Its like a cross eyed javelin thrower, not very accurate but it gets your attention.

[Werner_1]

For value investors, the media creates uncertainty for the general population and market opportunities for the guys that look through it. So for the ones that identify excellent companies that are punished by the market due to some rediculous media, the media can be a excellent tool... Goldman might just be such a opportunity. I bought some shares in Research in Motion because if you look at their sales, subscriber base and earnings its obvious that the guys who say BlackBerry sales are declining because of the iPhone and Andriod are speaking absolute rubbish - drop in sales will result in less profit, a drop in subscriber base, etc. none of this is happening, so just wait for RIMM shares to pick up over time. Did any of you see Apple's release? Excellent!

[kwagga]

It's not so much what I see coming from the US; it's what I don't see. They focus mainly on top 20 companies. What about the thousands of listed companies in the US? Are they outperforming, or have we got a case of selective picking by major media channels for whatever reason. I'm very sceptical about news coming from the US. They haven't got an ignorant brain washed population for nothing. They weren't born ignorant, but they were raised ignorant.

[Werner_1]

true, only the latest companies or ones really making headlines are detailed on these channels... I guess this again offers the opportunity for the guys willing to spend time researching the other companies. thats exactly what my valuation research project is about, i have a special application that analyses all the 500 constituents of the S&P500 weekly and lets me expand my horizons on what is offering value and whats expensive based on my valuation strategy. this helps me tremendously, i will publish a broad overview of the monthly results, top/bottom 10 holdings and performance (its up 3.79% for April so far, holding 44 different shares with different weighting based on the calculation - thats the key to the project - all relies on a specific calculation). I think these results are quite good, but 1 month isnt any good indicator, so the idea is to run this for some time and hopefully it will bring to my attention some good value opportunities. This system doesnt need media at all.. media helps create these opportunities though.

[louisg]

All the information that a long term investor requires after he/she has bought into a quality business is interim/final financial reports and the odd trading update. The rest is mostly useless noise. Can't wait until I stop listening/watching/reading......

[john_1]

did you contact my frind for JP Morgan.. he has done all this already.. he runs their IT devision.

[richardw]

And whether Zuma's son is one of the directors.

[Werner_1]

John, I still need to contact him, i didnt get much time to do anything lately, we're quite busy with another project at the moment, but what i created is quite specific and i dont think anyone could give me what i calculated, maybe other firms have different systems, but what i am talking about is what i developed over the past 5-6 years that i started to automate, the calculation is very unique and used for identifying, balancing and purchasing and selling shares, also have ideas to build in leverage allowance for bigger portfolio like hedge funds, etc. The system is more of a IT implementation of my specific strategy.

[doomsdayza]

kwagga see http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2010/04/etf-pairs-as-sentiment-gauges-iwm-and.html & http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2010/04/few-things-that-i-believe-observations.html

[SimonPB]

hey john .. you mean with one exception not so ?? 2 or 3 timnes a week CNBC be the best there is ..

[john_1]

Well yes, maybe, no.