My stock market advice for 2016

Do you ever ask yourself about the stock market? I don’t mean how the market works or where your money went, but why it is that so many grown men and women spend all their waking hours telling the world where the market is headed. Buy this mutual fund, says one analyst; get out of bonds, says another. Or maybe they’ll announce, as an increasing number seem to be doing this week, that the market is going into the dumper, so sell everything. “Cash is King,” they say.

I’m not against the experts. I’ve quoted many of them over the years and I read them still. But I just wonder: Why do they bother sharing their hard-won knowledge with us? If they know what stock to buy or when to convert to cash, why don’t they just use their own savvy information and get rich?

Well, the reason is simple. They have no idea whatsoever what’s going to happen next, where a particular stock is headed, or whether the market is a bull or a bear or a bust. As a result, they make more money selling their prattle than acting on it for their own pocket.

So the next time you hear some expert making a prediction, don’t believe it. If those folks were that smart, they wouldn’t be chained to a desk supposedly working for you and for me. So, here’s my advice; don’t take any advice. Happy New Year!