Every other day we’re inundated with news on the ISIS terrorists, Ukraine vs. Russia, news about immigration reform, a mediocre jobs report; What’s next? Surely these horrible events would have an adverse effect on the stock market, right? Negative news after all results in fear and panic in the stock market. People should become fidgety and start selling off all of their stocks; It makes perfect sense. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Instead, the stock market continues to surge forward, and just like any other time, it’s not related to any one thing.
So what could be causing the market to continue moving up? Well, some of the experts have claimed that the reasons for continuous growth during all of this is obvious: The Fed continues to keep the interest rates low, which keeps bond prices high, generating more spending – boosting the stock market. A weak jobs report signals that people aren’t ready for the rate increases from the Fed, which propels the stock market even further.
But, what about the geopolitical tensions again? There are only hundreds of people dying from rocket launches and rapid fire assaults every single day, yet these headlines stay far away from the financial news… until… of course the market goes down! THEN these horror stories start making their way into the finance headlines.
In conclusion, it’s safe to say that negative news does not always result in market weakness. More than anything, when the market is high, it’s important to examine your portfolio closely to make sure it is healthy, diversified and safe. Be ready to welcome weakness so that you can add to your positions, too. And in order to add to your positions, or to create new ones, it’s important to have a strategy in place so that you can, at a bare minimum, have some money available before the market drops. Even if it means taking some of your profits off of the table now!
For a person in their 20’s or 30’s in America, with the market situation going into September 2014, I believe the best places to have your money right now is in five places: