I’ve been told that the two biggest problems in the world today are ignorance and apathy.
My response?
I don’t know and I don’t care.
Bah dum bum!
I’m here all week, tip your waitress and try the veal! But I did learn something today while working on a story.
It was a banking story and there’s plenty of doom and gloom and rising interest rates and then there are folks trying to put banks in impoverished areas to help educate and train up folks in finances. And bigger banks are investing in that bank to help them on their mission and while they are helping out those with less, everybody seems to win in the end.
Then there’s the stock market.
When the country was running red there was a lot of growth and a lot of green numbers spread across the Nasdaq, S&P and other acronymic financial organizations.
Then the country ran blue and red numbers started showing up instead of green and even if you had green the cost of things you once bought put you in the red from groceries to gas. And all that red led to a lot of pessimism.
Well, more than that, kind of the most pessimism and then just keep doubling it and doubling it.
But I had to keep working on this story because the deadline had already come and gone and I didn’t get the fire in my britches about it soon enough. And then this financial planner guy called me back and started educating me.
We’ve talked for several years and I pay close attention to what he says because he’s been doing this for 50 years and well, he’s still doing it and hasn’t run out of folk’s money yet.
He told me that every day, for quite some time, his clients have been calling him and they have been pessimistic and he and his partners talk them off the ledge of selling everything they own at rock bottom prices. Just hold on. Kinda like an Easter message.
This fellah told me there is a sentiment index that is measured and it’s been at “pessimistic” for the past 17 months.
And he said that last October was the lowest point of the market.
I wasn’t feeling very good about my future but he started to talk me off the ledge without knowing it.
This experienced money fellah said that for the first time the sentiment index had turned to – you’re not gonna believe this – positive!
Yep. Now why in my head do I sound like Andy Griffith telling this story? Anyway, Opie, this fellah told me “We have a saying in this business that the point of maximum pessimism is the point of maximum opportunity.” And then he said the market has gone up the last nine sentiment profs and that the average S&P return on each one was over 25%.
I got down off the ledge and wished I’d had this story assigned to me much sooner or that I’d dug into it sooner but good news is good news. He didn’t tell me what to buy or where to throw any loose nickels.
But I was happy to hear him and when I looked, yes, there was more green than red, at least today. I reckon I’ve adopted the Bobby McFerrin investing strategy. “Don’t worry, be happy.”
Alrighty then. Let’s pray the sentiment stays optimistic and get off that ledge.
