    Okay then. The market has been down a few days with concern over interest rates, economic growth and potential inflation… bond yields have been rising… and? Well, isn’t that what markets are supposed to do? Yes, but it doesn’t make you feel any better to see portfolio values decreasing with the Dow losing over 400 points in a few days. So normally I just don’t… watch the portfolio decrease in value that is. Instead I look at trends, and if there are a few stocks with a shorter investment horizon I’ll see if I can capitalize on how the trends may or may not affect that particular stock. There is a lot of churn in the markets, especially as institutions and other large investors move through various sectors. Without that turnover and cyclical events within the economy we would have no market… no movement or financial strategy to work through. What the heck am I talking about? I think just the fact that markets go up, they go down, but over time… they grow. Lots of folks have jobs and specializations in the financial sea of economic progress, and I’m glad there are folks who have made a career out of managing investments for others.Â
    I’m not a trader… I don’t sit day after day and react to market swings buying and selling securities and bonds, so I have the comfort of time and a little wider perspective. If bond prices fall, well then yields rise.  Stocks and securities in one investment may go down, but with proper asset allocation other securities may rise. With falling values, the market presents opportunities.  It’s healthy for the market and necessary.  We’ll just have to see how far this goes, but volatility may be the watchword in the next few months. International markets have outpaced much of the U.S. market growth the past couple of years, and that “frothy” speculation has to settle down at some point.   The Chinese market has been selling off lately as well, especially amid the product safety concerns in recent months over many of the Chinese imports such as toothpaste, pet food… who knows what else. Today we read that the Chinese have fired back at U.S. product safety claiming that health products and raisins (?) imported from the U.S. do not meet Chinese safety standards… Huh?!  Don’t you love it when politics and economics come together?  As one who has spent a lot of time in Asia, including Hong Kong, I can tell you that food and product safety standards are nothing like they are in the U.S. Quality controls and manufacturing standards are far more advanced in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Western Europe, and far stronger than most other countries around the world.  Our investment and securities market standards are also far ahead of most other nations as well. We have much stronger regulation and the checks and balances that serve as the foundation for the primary and secondary markets.  I do keep a portion of my investments in the international markets, but the bulk of my portfolio is carried on board the U.S. economic ship of progress… and I have a lot more faith that we’ll navigate successfully through the rough economic waters over the years ahead.
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