Ignore Bad Advice About Declining Stock Prices

Last week was the worst week for the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ since May 2012. The S&P 500 index dropped 3.1 percent on the week to 1,906.13 and the NASDAQ fell 2.3 percent to 4,276.24. Not surprisingly, the market’s volatility and rapid decline brought out the worst in the financial media. The amount of misinformation currently out there is staggering. I can only deal with the tip of the iceberg here.

“Advice” to buy or sell

The advice of Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, was typical. Mr. Wren counseled investors to take advantage of the recent market volatility and invest now in certain sectors.

Here’s the problem. Neither Mr. Wren nor anyone else has any idea whether last week was a temporary setback for the market or the beginning of a protracted decline. Worse still, trying to predict which sectors will outperform other sectors is an exercise with precious little credible data to support it.

Read the rest of the article at The Huffington Post.