If every dip was a buying opportunity, most of us would have
been out of bullets a long time ago.
Long-term investors need to shy away from the manic coverage we
receive from most mainstream media channels. Unfortunately for some
business media in particular, the quest for ratings has overtaken
over any sense of investor accountability. At the end of the day,
it is always up to the investor to take media messages with a grain
of salt, but when the ratings are on the line (which is most always
the case), then the cheap pop of how stocks react following any
particular report is used as the dominant investing theme.
I hope that our subscribers are seeing through the noise, and
stick to the gameplan of looking for quality dividend-paying stocks
that make sense in whatever the current environment is. The current
economic situation continues to be one filled with dangerous turns,
and we will do our best to maneuver through it. When it comes to
timing the market, that becomes a tough game for most, but if you
are feeling like a certain time period is too uncertain, then you
make the best call you feel works best for you. If you'd like to
watch from the sidelines for a few months and sit out the action,
so be it. Investing is a marathon and each individual investor
needs a moment to catch their breath. The key thing is to avoid
making the "timing" aspect a regular part of your investing
methodology. Getting too cute will also prevent you from benefiting
from good risk/reward moments.
As for today's market, commodity stocks saw a second consecutive
day of profit-taking, with Mosaic (
MOS
) , Massey Energy (
MEE
) , Peabody Energy (
BTU
) , and even Potash Corp (
POT
) trading in the red. The market was able to close above the
psychological Dow 10K levels, after dropping below that earlier in
the day. Public Storage (
PSA
) . Lorillard (
LO
) , and UnitedHealth Group (
UNH
) were some of the names leading the rally. There aren't many
earnings reports this week, so we are watching how sectors are
moving in relation to the market's "temperature." There could be
more trimming to come for us, but we will certainly keep
subscribers updated to any of those possible changes to our Best
Dividend Stocks List.
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.