Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of October 10, 2012

Article Excerpt

Economists and the media spend an awful lot of time trying to predict economic growth rates around the world, these days especially. Virtually all these forecasts will come in far from accurate. Few if any will provide meaningful help to investors, at least directly. The International Monetary Fund has just cut its forecasts for the second time since April. Its new forecasts are filled with provisos and uncertainties to explain why they are likely to be even less helpful than usual. They provide little investing guidance, but they do raise the kinds of questions that can keep investors awake at night. My view is that today’s many economic and financial uncertainties have a beneficial side effect: they tone down investor expectations. This is a good thing for today’s stock buyers, because low investor expectations tend to cut risk. Think about it: when investor expectations are low, investors tend to devote less money than usual to the stock market. They are braced for…