These 2 to 5 percent swings in a day is what has me baffled. I figure there is some one (or a couple of computers) driving this. Buy Wednesday morning and make 5% in a day, then turn around and sell short today and make another 3 %. I figure the big guys have this rigged to suck all blood out of the low lives who just have 401k's. Personally I'd like to ban computer driven trading based on algorithms that search out words in tweats or the butterfly count in East Krygistan.
Well, hopefully your 401(k) manager has a longer-term strategy and isn't trying to keep up with daily volatility.
Listening to the "Professionals" today is a joke....they are worse than local tv weather guys...it could be sunny or cloudy..50/50 chance of the market going up or selling off, the correction is being reversed in reverse.
Inmates running the asylum.... Don't look for sense in the market. Company A makes money hand fist and is in the black all year...one sketchy news report about the company and the stock price plummets. Company B operates at a loss all year but the loss isn't as big as they expected...stock price jumps up 20 points. Sanity is not the markets strong point.
Plus, some of the hedge funds and larger companies have enough buying power to manipulate the market.
The point is a bit exaggerated, but it absolutely makes sense. Value is almost entirely based on expectations, not historical performance (other than as one indicator for...future performance!). Assuming Company A and B are both going to continue on similar tracks, Company A will still be worth a heck of a lot more.
One of my guilty pleasures is reading the daily headlines about what the news attributes the market performance of the day to. Hilarious.
Heard one good thing yesterday as the DOW jumped over 800 points from its low to its finish high. Ban computers from making trades for one minute from the the time the order is placed to when the trade can take effect. Turns out some of these trades take place so fast that the "normal" market is just left in the dust.