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January 5, 2009
Don't Get Scammed by Investment Spam
As an investment advisor, I get a lot of finance-related email offerings. And I'm frequently struck by the audacity - and absurdity - of these communications. Here's an example.
Just yesterday I received an email promoting a "Complimentary 2009 Market Forecast." I was told that "Forecast 2009 clearly shows when a nice rally - and a major, major - decline comes in 2009 for the Stock Market." In addition, the author of Forecast 2009 "also expects a surprise sell-off in Gold and then a significant buy point, as well as a massive move in the Bond market." And in a final burst of unbridled bravado, the author explained that "My forecasts are road maps of the future, about as close as you can get to having next month's newspaper, today." In closing, he offered me the opportunity to "Know Today, what will happen in 2009."
What nonsense. The scary thing is that you couldn't make this stuff up. These are verbatim quotes from some self-proclaimed stock market Einstein who - despite being worth trillions, presumably, by having followed his own prescient advice - runs his own website that looks like it was designed by an eight-year-old and features no less than five photos of this God-like forecaster.
Don't fall for this kind of idiotic prognostication. Learn about investing the old-fashioned way by studying the markets, assessing your own needs and tolerance for risk, and developing a long-term strategy. Market timers like this jerk almost never make money - if they did, they wouldn't be spamming the likes of me and you. Yes, 2008 was an extremely difficult and painful year for investors - and no one knows what 2009 holds for us. Just stay focused, stay on strategy, and don't try to make up for last year's losses all at once. And above all, don't fall for the get-rich-quick nonsense of spam emails and television infomercials.
Just yesterday I received an email promoting a "Complimentary 2009 Market Forecast." I was told that "Forecast 2009 clearly shows when a nice rally - and a major, major - decline comes in 2009 for the Stock Market." In addition, the author of Forecast 2009 "also expects a surprise sell-off in Gold and then a significant buy point, as well as a massive move in the Bond market." And in a final burst of unbridled bravado, the author explained that "My forecasts are road maps of the future, about as close as you can get to having next month's newspaper, today." In closing, he offered me the opportunity to "Know Today, what will happen in 2009."
What nonsense. The scary thing is that you couldn't make this stuff up. These are verbatim quotes from some self-proclaimed stock market Einstein who - despite being worth trillions, presumably, by having followed his own prescient advice - runs his own website that looks like it was designed by an eight-year-old and features no less than five photos of this God-like forecaster.
Don't fall for this kind of idiotic prognostication. Learn about investing the old-fashioned way by studying the markets, assessing your own needs and tolerance for risk, and developing a long-term strategy. Market timers like this jerk almost never make money - if they did, they wouldn't be spamming the likes of me and you. Yes, 2008 was an extremely difficult and painful year for investors - and no one knows what 2009 holds for us. Just stay focused, stay on strategy, and don't try to make up for last year's losses all at once. And above all, don't fall for the get-rich-quick nonsense of spam emails and television infomercials.
