I Don’t Care

Here’s a list of things I don’t care about:

• What the market did today
• The 200-day moving average
• Some imaginary pattern a talking head “sees” in the market
• 95% of anything on CNBC
• What a politician said
• What a politician in Europe said
• Any explanation the financial press has for today’s market movement
• Google’s (et al) latest earnings report
• “10 Best Stocks for Next Year” and derivative garbage
• Any IPO
• Anything from the mouth of Jim Cramer
• Two words that were changed in the last Fed meeting minutes
• Any Wall Street year-end price target for the Dow or S&P 500

And here’s a list of things that are interesting to me but certainly not actionable for my investment portfolio (or yours).

• Long term effects of monetary policy
• Public sector deficits
• U.S. GDP Growth
• Changes in the unemployment rate
• Currency exchange rates

Seriously, acting on this information is like hearing the ice cream truck drive by, picking up the Sunday paper, circling a few interesting jobs, calling on those jobs, going on job interviews, negotiating salary, accepting a job, filling out my W-4, working the first two weeks, getting a paycheck, opening a bank account, depositing the check, going to the ATM, taking out $20, going home and acting surprised that the ice cream truck is no longer on my block. That’s how efficient the market is in processing this data.  In fact, it had anticipated most of the data before it even came out.

This information is neither actionable nor under our control.  So let’s focus instead on investment policy, tax planning, minimizing costs and the other real keys to long term success.