Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of November 17, 2015

Article Excerpt

The need for perspective comes up virtually every day in the life of a successful investor. That’s because your daily experience helps to mould your view of the world. It gives you an idea, right or wrong, about how current events will affect your investments. When you lack perspective, it’s easy to jump to mistaken conclusions and make costly investing errors. This came to mind on Friday, when the Dow slumped more than 200 points. The drop was at least partly a response to the Paris terrorist attacks. Some investors undoubtedly sold stocks in panic, out of fear that similar attacks would break out throughout the west. On the weekend, the media ran extensive coverage of the attacks, and quoted a lot of people who feared this was just the start. On Monday, the Dow Industrial index regained its Friday losses. The rise continued on Tuesday. That’s a far more subdued market response than the one that followed the hijacked-airliner attacks of…