From World Headquarters
PremiumPoints 3Q-2021 | The High Cost of Comfort
The equity markets ended 3Q-2021 on a sour note apparently driven by budget standoff, inflation and general market valuation concerns. Still, equity markets are broadly ahead for the year more than the historical average annual total return…so we are not complaining. Between the new trading platforms like RobinHood, the meme stocks, the crypto hustle and the now omnipresent marketing of online gaming sites, we have real concerns that investing, trading and the markets are being portrayed as sure-thing, entertainment style activities. Indeed, RobinHood was forced to remove the elements of their online app that mimicked games. Never in my 40-plus years in the markets have I seen the endless promotion of something like the current hype around so-called “crypto currencies.” There is an obvious reason for that promotion—something with zero intrinsic value needs an endless supply of greater fools to support and drive prices. And mark these words: A market value that relies on an infinite supply of greater fools will eventually have neither….fools or value. And if we have learned anything in this American life is that people will believe and buy just about anything that is peddled to them, from pet rocks to eternal salvation. The specter of inflation again hovers over the markets. Inflation fears tend to push interest rates higher which in turn tend to put a damper on security prices. To be sure, prices of many things have spiked higher during the Covid lockdown as well-trained consumers turned to online purchasing to ease their angst and fill their time. Investors Earn Returns Net of All Fees3Q-2021 Review & Outlook
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Minding your total expense burden will serve investors very well.
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