Morningstar Advisor: The Lizards are Winning

Full article about overload of convoluted economic information and advisers playing on the emotions of regular investors here.

An increasing number of investors are responding not with their highly developed cerebral cortexes, but with what Bob Veres so aptly described as our lizard brain. This reptilian, preverbal remnant causes us to react to what we perceive as danger with a flight or fight response. When investors can’t comfortably assess the danger and don’t know how to evaluate whether it is getting better or worse, it is not surprising that so many have responded by fleeing equities for the perceived safety of cash.

The ‘Lie to Me’ Syndrome

Neat article...I kinda wish I had published a blog I wrote two weeks ago about what the recent surge in stocks really looks like in terms of fairly valued Price-to-Earnings ratios. Long story short: go short not long in these days.

That new television series “Lie to Me” is not just brilliant, like Col. Jessup’s “mad-as-hell” response, it’s an indictment of the “wimpy” syndrome that’s infiltrating the investor’s brain.

Want to See Media abuse of Investors?

I just peeped the new, sexy Yahoo Finance “Tech Tab.” Now, I don’t go to Yahoo finance because other people report what’s there to me. However, I have to say, it is going to hurt you.

Notice the stationary $7 advertisement on the "stock picker" window?

Your first clue is that it’s sponsored by Scottrade, which just needs you for your trading fees. Let me direct you to zecco for some cheap trading thrills on a sexy platform if that’s what you want. Your second clue is the actual name of the page as you can see in my navigation bar is  “Technology stock picker.” NO it is NOT.  Just because tech has been the big mover recently doesn’t mean you should be trading to “smell profits in the morning” as the advertisement says. Please do NOT pay attention to this feature. Head over to google finance and holler at me if you need help setting your personal page up. It’s easy to use and really functional.

Things to Consider When Entering: The Exit

Do you often wait to make decisions until you make considerations in the case of deciding or needing to  change course? I myself find it hard to imagine that I’ve already made a bad decision and I find it especially infuriating to play devil’s advocate with my own future while trying to make a decision now. But in general, the considerations that will make me change course are the same. And buried deep in Fidelity’s own information pages, I found them spelled out.

For investment advice,  if you are so inclined to do your own research, I recommend that you check out The Motley Fool website. Or pay a tax attourney, accountant, and/or financial advisor to help you. Remember that you are responsible for the outcome and they are responsible for their advice. Big difference.

On the Fidelity webpage that tells me how to get my money out of L-3’s 401k, which is filled with information for people who’ve already decided to exit, are these three bulletpoints introduced as “considerations” for leaving the money IN:

•	You may have more restrictions than active employees (such as limited number of annual transactions)
•	You may be charged fees
•	You may have limited investment options

Points one and three are essentially the same. Fidelity lightly reminds you that you “may” want to leave your options open. And that you “may” be paying fees along the way no matter what. I assume that for most people, this info generally isn’t what you’re looking hard at the time you decided to get into this. Hey, me neither. I had just heard that Fidelity is like, the best place for a bourgeoise like myself to “invest.” Now I know that just like any other choice I make, options and fees are the main themes to get more information on when deciding what to do. It’s all the same.

So how about thinking through these sentences next time you’re deliberating:

• “This may restrict me __how_”
• “This may cause me to pay __what_”
• “This may limit my options __where__”

The use of the auiliary verb “may” is both a present and future possibility! Just keep it in mind.