Your Money

Stock market Shills

I am fed up with the 680News stock market reports – 4 times an hour – as they are such biased bull advocates that reason makes no headway with these ‘financial analysts’.

Aside from constantly using the gambling terms ‘wins’ and ‘loses’, the commentators – whether male or female -- get so excited and euphoric when the stock market goes up and almost weep in lamentation if the market is even down by 10 to 20 points.

As the market in Toronto and New York will regularly gyrate 50 to 100 points each way day to day, any change under 170 points (plus or minus) is within the ‘normal’ variation range of today’s volatile and overinflated stock markets.

In this we have become like Japan, where up to 200 point fluctuations are daily norms and only a change in the magnitude of 500 points shows a ‘real trend’ -- if sustained.

Secondly, the 680News analysts love when the price of crude oil and gold go up without thinking of the huge downside for the economy that such rises entail.

Yes, Canada is an oil producer and, yes, we have major gold mine companies, but oil price rises destroy manufacturing and create inflationary pressures that cripple economies, reduce family buying power and kill seniors on fixed pension.

And as for booming gold, it is all speculative and promotes the fear that the world’s economies and governments are in eminent collapse!!! Why else by gold or silver that one must pay to store?

If the TSX is so heavily dependant on these 2 commodities, we are at the same stock market risk as when Nortel accounted for 1/3 the TSE ‘s value and, on its collapse, devastated hundreds of thousands of investors – big and small.

No, a simple reporting of the data in a monotone is what we need; and even better would be stock markets that free of day trading speculators and a return to what a market should be - slow, gradual growth of 5% to 8% over the long term.

Anyone raised on market returns of 20% to 30% over the last 2 decades will think I am insane, but those radical ‘profits’ led to horrendous falls – as they always do.

What we need is the calm tortoise market, not the erratic if spectacular hare – and market reports who understand the benefit of green shells.