Investors early last Monday were treated with good news, as stock futures edged higher in pre-market trading. On Tuesday, people cheered a three-day winning streak for the S&P 500
Raise your hand if the market seems schizophrenic to you, too.
While all of these headlines were very exciting and seemed meaningful in the moment, none of them really amounted to anything significant for investors by week's end.
Despite what seems like a rollercoaster ride of signals and sentiment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
It's easy to get caught up in the impatient and short-term focus of the market, but there is very little that can ever be garnered from a week's worth of headlines. When you look at everything with that small of a lens, molehills look like mountains and you never figure out which direction you're headed.
Just consider the best-performing stocks on the Dow this week. Hewlett-Packard
Meanwhile, Disney and Wal-Mart, two of the Dow's best-performing stocks this year, were both down for the week.
Taking a step back and tuning out all this market noise can be tough, but the narrow view is a dangerous one. It makes losers look like winners, exaggerates insignificant news, and clouds our judgment. Real investors know that the headlines of this week, and next week, and even the week after that will probably be meaningless. Instead, what matters is identifying great, stable companies for the long run.
If you need some suggestions about a few companies that fit this bill I suggest you learn about The 3 Dow Stocks Dividend Investors Need. It's our selection of set-and-forget dividend stocks that will keep paying you in good times and bad. They've all thrashed the market through this last rough patch, and you can read more about them.