Here’s the fact; all of you are being lied to on a daily basis.
The financial media has a vested interested in lying to you.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Jim Cramer or Icabod Crane; you are being systematically lied to, and it needs to stop. Or, you need to stop buying what they are selling (pardon the pun).
I could write books (in fact, I have) about the financial press and its inability to simply report the news. How dull would that be? For example, suppose all Maria Bartiromo did was tell you that the market, as measured by the Dow, went up 67 points today and leave it at that? A journalist does have a responsibility to engage, but not at the risk of compromising the truth.
But, that is exactly what the financial press does when they attempt to tell you why the Dow went up 67 points today. For measure, these “Journalists” make it a standard operating procedure to bring in 57 other “experts” to tell you why the market does something at any given moment. The problem is that none of them know. Heck, they don’t know why it went up or down over the last 12 months, let alone the last 12 minutes. So, why are they so bent on telling you?
Madison Avenue likes the fact that you watch the program or read the paper. They couldn’t care less that you are engaging in dangerous discourse that could lead toward taking action that could put you on the road to personal financial ruin.
Years ago, when I was doing local morning news, I remember getting a phone call from CBS News in NY wanting to know if the market had done record volume the day before. As I recall, the market had indeed set a record the previous day, trading something like 300 million shares (for the record, I am aware that this fact makes me much older and a little less hip than the baby in the E-Trade commercials). The very next morning, I got a call from the same producer at CBS wanting to know if 330 million shares was a big day; now, folks, if 300 million the day previous was a record, why wouldn’t 330 million be considered a big day? Welcome to the world of big time network financial news. The guy was likely a 19 year old J-school intern following orders from a producer who prioritized “journalistic integrity” about 10 pegs down the order of importance from what the anchor was to wear during that day’s broadcast . Just another reason why I think the financial press leaves a lot to be desired.
I don’t think these folks are evil. I think they are doing a job that they were trained to do. It’s a lot like practicing a bad golf swing. You can practice for 8 hours a day 24/7, but if your swing stinks, so will your golf game.
What is needed is a complete overhaul of the financial media. Let’s start with my new show called Danny Fontana on Finance on INSP (Inspiration Network). Starting Monday, May 18th at 3:30 PM, Monday through Friday, I am going to present how to interpret the financial news and give all of you important insights into your portfolios. It will not be “buy this” or “sell that”. It will be why you should buy and when; helpful information so you can figure out what represents quality and value, and it will emphasize those attributes that make us great. There will be no attempt to time the market. There will be an attempt to get you to understand why you should never, ever try to do that. If we are successful and you watch, listen and learn, we can turn this ship around. I promise a couple of things; you will learn and you will have fun.
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