“The Worst Day of 2014″

By EmmaZahn on Thu, 01/23/2014 - 6:58pm |

One thing I think is highly apparent and disturbing is the current lack of tolerance for stock market losses. Newbie investors and veterans with selective memory seem to be incapable of quietly coping with downward moves in the stocks they own. It’s like they weren’t counting on not being immediately up in everything they bought, as though unrealized gains were an unalienable right in the constitution.

Financial media and the Twittersphere are wailing as though we’re at a Great Chieftain’s funeral. The reality is that we’re within a percent or two of all-time record highs.

Goldman’s chief equity strategists David Kostin shocked the firm’s institutional client base two weeks ago by suggesting that the market was expensive and would need more earnings growth to justify further gains. They were furious at his notion that the multiple was probably as stretched as it could be. “Give us a smartypants rationale for 18x, 20x earnings, David!” the spoiled brats clamored as he made his rounds. He’s not biting.

This overly sensitive, emotionally fragile condition is an unhealthy one. It ought to be rectified fairly quickly should the slide extend from here. I hope it does. People need a reminder that they aren’t geniuses nor are they promised immediate gratification from every investment they make.

URL:

http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2014/01/23/the-worst-day-of-2014/

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Thank you for this. There's been so much else going on and the stock market has been sooo same-old same-old for so long that I had stopped paying attention.

by artappraiser on Thu, 01/23/2014 - 10:56pm

Updated, 4:09 p.m. | Stock markets fell around the world on Friday as investors worried about an economic slowdown in emerging markets.

The concerns led to the first sustained decline in United States stock indexes in 2014. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 2.09 percent on Friday; so far, it is off more than 3 percent for the year. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.96 percent and 4 percent for the year.

The downturn was much worse elsewhere, with the Euro Stoxx 50 index falling more than 2.8 percent, bringing it into the red for 2014.

The declines this week have been fed by disappointing economic news out of China and the rest of the developing world. An index of Chinese manufacturing growth released on Thursday showed that the sector was contracting for the first time in six months.

A number of slightly disappointing economic data points in the United States has led to some concern that a slowdown in China could be contagious. On Thursday, data on home sales came in slightly lower than expected....

continued @ Dealbook @ nytimes.com, Jan. 24

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/24/2014 - 7:32pm

It's happening again:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-04/asian-stocks-fall-as-u-s-manufa...

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/04/2014 - 2:09am

A Field Guide to Stock Market Corrections | The Reformed Broker The S&P 500 is now down just about 7% from its mid-January all-time high. We’re currently somewhere between what market-watchers would call a “dip” and a “correction”.

I’d like to walk you through what these terms actually mean and give you some context before you encounter the almost-guaranteed hysterics of the financial commentariat this evening. If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, then you already know that I don’t play for any particular team – bulls or bears – I simply deal in the facts themselves and leave readers to formulate their own opinions.

- Josh

by EmmaZahn on Wed, 02/05/2014 - 7:23pm

“The Worst Day of 2014″

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