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STOP! Do not read another word! Advance mouse to
Investopedia.com. Do not pass GO. Do not collect another prospectus.
The NYSE advance-decline line has been positive for
nearly six years!
| When? |
Up tks |
Down tks |
Net |
Days Up |
Days Down |
New Highs |
New Lows |
| From 1/99 |
2,657,563 |
2,566,921 |
90,642 |
894 |
779 |
198,216 |
103,284 |
| 6/00 - 6/02 |
779,408 |
737,882 |
41,526 |
275 |
225 |
56,287 |
27,296 |
| 6/00 - 6/03 |
1,185,757 |
1,131,545 |
54,212 |
407 |
341 |
73,945 |
47,474 |
| 3/03-03/04 |
432,942 |
369,209 |
63,733 |
157 |
91 |
59,076 |
4,386 |
| 06/00-now |
2,149,469 |
2,002,710 |
146,759 |
743 |
575 |
179,650 |
64,318 |
| 04/00 to now |
2,206,288 |
2,065,750 |
140,538 |
763 |
596 |
181,557 |
66,935 |
Note: Statistics gathered manually from various
sources, certainly may be off a few percent in either direction.
What is wrong with the averages? How sick are the
Mutual Funds?
Here are some questions you should be asking. 1) Is
there "Investment Life" after Mutual Funds? 2) What is the average
investor/speculator to do? (3) Who can you trust? (4) Why are people still
throwing money at the corrupt Mutual Funds? 5) Is there a safe(r)
alternative? 6) Can a financial professional function without funds? (7)
Did Mutual Funds make YOU lose money over the past several years? (Answers
below.)
Investing always involves more questions than
answers, and the idea that Wall Street has those answers and that they are
imbedded in the products that they market to the "moneyed" public, is
simply part of the brainwashing of the American investor. So, too, is the
myth that Mutual Funds are a safer investment mechanism than a properly
constructed portfolio of individual securities. Perhaps they should be, in
concept. In reality, they haven't been for decades.
Investors have always searched for a safe and easy
way to protect and to grow their portfolios. This used to be accomplished
by applying a combination of management and investment principles to the
process. A diversified portfolio of high quality, profitable companies, and
an appropriate amount of less volatile income producers was pretty easy to
create, to manage, and to monitor.
It still is, when you realize that investing is not
a competitive event. The original Mutual Fund managers actually knew how to
do this, were paid to do it, and were not at all influenced by the
incredible confluence of outside forces that impacts their decision making
today. In their original form, Mutual Funds were Trustee directed within
the retirement benefit community, and a stepping-stone to a properly
diversified, individual security portfolio on the personal level. Before
the three-ring Wall Street circus came to town, there were only two
"classes" of securities, retirement programs were not self-directed, the
DJIA was an economic indicator, investing was a personal goal directed
activity, and the Yankees won the American league pennant most of the time.
Almost everything (except the Yankees) changed with
the onslaught of the "new generation" of Mutual Fund marketeers and self-
directed retirement vehicles. Wall Street invented market prediction
techniques and new subdivisions of securities; investment products were
mass-produced in every shape, size, model, and color, with great financial
planning success; sales literature was sold as research/analysis, and
financial institutions became indistinguishable from one another. People
pay extra not to collect current interest and loss-taking is seen as a good
idea. Unproven team-player Mutual Fund managers receive signing bonuses
that would shock professional athletes, and 60-second sound bites on CNBC
define today's investment reality to the masses. A calendar year is now
long-term, buy high/sell low a religion, and absolutely everyone, from
accountants to wedding planners, can sell Mutual Funds for extra cash. Wall
Street is Las Vegas in pinstripes and red suspenders.
Are today's late trading, market timing, and
executive suite scandals going to change things dramatically? It's
doubtful, simply because Mutual Funds are so profitable for the
institutions, so mindlessly easy to sell for financial professionals, AND
the only available investment medium for hundreds of millions of employees
throughout the country! But is there a better way to invest safely and
profitably in spite of all the problems? You can't afford to be lazy
anymore. Learn how to manage a high quality, diversified portfolio of
individual securities.
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Answering the six questions raised in the first
paragraph, from the pages of the Business Best Seller: "The Brainwashing of
the American Investor". Yes Virginia, there is investment life after Mutual
Funds. (2) Rediscover individual securities, after taking a crash course in
the principles of investing. (3) Trust yourself, once you've taken the
course. (4) Most investors have no choice but to use Funds, the others
learn their lessons slowly. (5) Yes, individual securities in a plain
vanilla investment plan can be much safer. (6) Some planners have de-toxed
from funds, but it's a lot more like work. Most won't try. (7) Nope, you'll
have to take the blame for the losses yourself.
Steve Selengut
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