Suddenly, every little noise was cause for alarm, and a promise to return to the spacious glaciers. By morning, the myth was just that, but wreaked havoc on a good night's sleep. Good companies are good investments. Bad companies are equally as good, if not better investments. Picking a top performing mutual fund is a worthwhile endeavor.
Stocks are in the midst of a bear market and it is caused by a rapidly deteriorating economy.
We'll save the first two myths for future columns. Today let's look at the myth surrounding this big bad bear market that's knocking on everyone's tent door. It all depends on how you define the stock market. Coffeehouse Investors, in an effort to build diversified portfolios, define the domestic stock market through the four baskets of large growth, large value, small growth and small value stocks. Only that the same financial media that focused solely on growth stocks on the way up are now focusing solely on this same sector on the way down, and neither scenario is truly representative of all dimensions of the stock market, nor the economy of the time.