I am a big newspaper reader as well as tracking news across a variety of web sites. If you follow the news today the only possible conclusion is that the geopolitical situation right now is just ugly. The conflict between the Shiites and Sunni in the Middle East threatens to blow up into a full scale regional war. China is making friends with Iran and building them a pipeline. Greece is making goo-goo eyes at Russia. Russia is going whatever it wants including apparently hacking the White House. 30,000 cases of hummus have been recalled. Iran’s Supreme Leader wants all sanctions lifted if they sign on the nuke deal. Yemen is collapsing. Oil is cheap and the dollar is rich. China and Japan are still arguing over a few islands. To make matters worse election season is starting and taxes are due next week.
Sitting up and worrying about the world we live in has been a sport for doom and gloomers, nay- sayers and pundits for generations. I confess that I am concerned about all of these things and more but I simply cannot let them guide my investing activities. If many of these situations worse they could have consequences for the market. If we have a hummus shortage my wife and daughter are going to be a tad testy. However many of these things won’t happen or they may happen and the markets just won’t care very much. I have to be guided by valuation and valuation alone or I would go crazy trying to guess events and outcomes. Even worse I would consistently lose money as predicting both the event and magnitude of the markets response is something about as likely as the Minnesota twins making it to the World Series this year.
I am a dyed ...
