Bin Laden Effect?

In the past, everyone is used to having nice gains for a period of time and then all of a sudden the market takes them back.  In our approach, we want to keep those gains, and realize that sometimes by cashing in those gains we may not sell at the very top.  But over time, when you add up all these 1 or 2 or 3 percent gains, all of a sudden you have a nice ANNUAL gain and hopefully with a lot less risk or losses in the portfolio.

There is usually a trigger that causes these sudden pullbacks in the market.  This morning I read an article that says the death of Bin Laden could be that trigger. The quote:  "The irony of bin Laden’s demise is that it could cause US markets to sell off as an act of caution. Good news is supposed to travel fast. For the financial markets, the news about bin Laden is not good."

We don't speculate on fundamental data like news articles and earnings reports.  Instead we try to keep that "noise" from distracting our monitoring  of what people are actually doing with their check books.

View the update in the Briefing Room.

John Norquay