Or so the headline screamed at the start of this week when the ASX had a fall of about 1.5% on Monday. For those listening to the “noise” it’s a rather scary headline………and deliberately so.
However, what most don’t pick up on is that the market then went on to end the week about 1% higher than it ended the previous week. The market gyrated around most of the week and then on Friday it went up about 1.5%........but there were no screaming headlines on Friday.
Do you know what the same media organisation had as their headline before the start of trade on Friday (after a positive lead from the US overnight)………“ASX to rebound”, not quite the same impact as market loses $30billion is it!
Now of course we can’t blame that media organisation for not knowing the market was going to go up by 1.5% on the day. So of course we should judge them more on their headlines throughout the day as the market traded…….oh what’s that, they didn’t provide any more headlines.
Surely they updated the headline when they knew it was turning out to be a good day (they do when it’s a bad day)………..nope, well not by the close of trade anyway.
And therein lies the problem……..when the news is bad, it is sensationalised and has a psychological impact on us. When it is good, well we probably don’t even know it, because good news apparently doesn’t sell.
I can’t control what the media write, but hopefully I can at least provide our valued clients with some perspective. Ignore the media headlines and enjoy your weekend.
Robert