The recessions are realistic growth.

I noticed something. I was looking at the graphs for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ.

The recessions are actually the only part of the market that are anywhere close to a realistic growth line.



Maybe we should be less concerned about how far the markets drop from their peaks, and more concerned about what's creating these artificially high market conditions? I mean, there's alot of money to be made in a volotile market. Someone, somewhere, is making obscene money whether the market is booming or tanking.

Technology has made short term investing realistic. People used to place a phone call, and wait a day or so to find out how they did. Now day traders measure their stock holdings in hours.

Just my opinion, but I think the short term investors are the cause of market instability - they use emotion and dubious connections to current events as tools to create artificially inflated stock prices. then, when the emotion wears off, the stock prices return to normal growth rates. But since it was higher, we call those realistic periods 'recessions'.

Maybe, if the government really wanted to do some good, they'd get the hell out of the free market, and instead of trying to regulate it, they'd study it. Then, release that information in some plain english ad campaigns to get people to look long term rather than checking their 401K 5 times a day. If the general public would remove emotion from the equation, the volatility would slow down. Normal investors would again be able to use the market to gain long term wealth. By 'normal investors' I mean the middle class. the same middle class that used to invest their savings rather than sticking it in the bank at a paultry 1 or 2% pooling up for the fat cats to make use of to make their profits (and bonuses) explode.

I've been tempted by day trading. I've created accounts with imaginary money just to see how I'd do. I won some and I lost some. Then I realized that the game I was playing didn't come close to matching the long term growth of the investments I've held for decades. I don't need to sweat those. I adjust them once or twice a year, most are in funds - I only change those up when the fund changes hands or updates the overall strategy.

Look closely at the market lows in the last 20 years. That's the growth you should bank on. Ignore the artificial peaks, at least until you get ready to retire and shift everything into more stable and less risky investments. then make sure you go out during one of those roller coaster highs.

There it is... The market according to Nobody That Matters.

I need to go refill my coffee now. :thumbsup:

Irrational exuberance?
I have to agree to a certain extent. Corporations now have PR departments and try to sell their stock. They aren't supposed to lie, but they do tend to trumpet good quarters and spin bad times.

And the investor advisors on TV prefer to be bullish on any market upticks.

It is my understanding that part of the problem(a LARGE part of it) is HFT.......High Frequency Trading......look into it, High powered
computers are extrapolating info and performing INSTANT trades in huge volumes . In 2009 almost 50 percent of trades were HFT,bet
the numbers are much higher now in 2011......this presents a problem,because as you pointed out previous,there was a TIME DELAY
for information to be manipulated,UNDERSTOOD,implemented and then completed.....NOT ANY MORE. Thus the problem you see today,JMO

You know... it's almost like our socialist and fascist politicians are in a race with big money and special interest to see who can rape the country of it's wealth first.