OPINION
1
Ignore Market Until February
End-of-year effects cause distorting swings
By Nick McMaster
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Posted Nov 20, 08 5:43 PM CST
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(Newser)
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The stock market can be a great synthesizer of millions of individual judgment calls about economic growth, government policy, and world events, writes Andy Kessler in the Wall Street Journal. But it’s also subject to end-of-year distortions, especially in down times like these. What's an investor to do? "I'd say stick wax in your ears and don't listen to the market until February."
December is often a dicey time for market predictions because investors take into account taxes when making decisions on everything from stocks to mutual funds to hedge funds. It "can be an ugly month of indiscriminate selling." January's no better because that's when new money managers are brought in to sort out the new messes made. February, then, is the right time to remove the ear wax.