I thought the economy was doing great?

[TwixVoy]

With all the BS the media was putting out last week and our one week bear market rally which was declared the bottom I thought it was only up from here. What a surprise this is.

[marmar]

1. That's because they try to conflate the stock market with the economy......

..... Everyday people know better.

[TwixVoy]

3. Do they?

Go back and read the posts here last week. Look how many people equated bear market really to "everything is up from here".

Go read articles on CNN, MSNBC, MSN, and others ALL last week. I did. Every article had a headline along the lines of "Is the recession over?" "Time to put your money back in the market?"

The media and big business manipulate everyday people so incredibly easily it is sick.

[sendero]

6. Anyone who still believes ANY of the...

.. mainstream financial press DESERVES to lose their money.

How long does it take anyone to figure out - these folks are selling for their corporate masters, they are the Pravda of the financial world and whatever they say you can pretty much do the opposite.

No Annabelle, the "recession" isn't over yet, it has hardly begun.

[paulsby]

2. also, the stock market NEVER goes ONLY up or down

i daytrade futures.

even in a bull market, the market can have some nasty downswings, and in a bear market, it can have some massive rallies.

the day to day machinations of the stock market are not a proxy for economicy health.

the market made a phenomenal move recently. frankly, it was overbought. it NEEDED to pull back.

most laypeople are always looking for a reason. the market is a complex, chaotic, dynamic system.

it's not that simple.

[pscot]

4. Gosh.

And here I thought it was just driven by fear and greed.

[paulsby]

5. it's actually fascinating

there are all sorts of different participants.

longterm investors - value players, yield seekers
short-term players - faders, momentum players
market makers

then you have all the hedgers,a nd the people offsetting shares to take the other side of an options trade, etc.

it is endlessly fascinating.

less so when i am losing money in it, but fascinating nonetheless.

one thing the press does is they always want to have a reason. "the market is up 200 pts today on oil supply news"

stuff like that. generally speaking, news is more likely to be a trigger than a reason

also, what matters is not the news, but the reaction TO the news.

it's like a meta thang