| It’s an understandable question. Depending on which headlines cross your phone that morning, we’re supposed to worry about inflation, artificial intelligence, government deficits, wars, interest rates, and what the market did yesterday. Every headline arrives dressed like a five-alarm fire.
After over two decades of investing, I’ve become increasingly persuaded that the biggest advantage isn’t knowing what happens next. It’s being prepared to act quickly when it matters, and knowing what doesn’t deserve a response at all.
The third quarter was a good reminder that markets don’t always need a dramatic explanation.
Stocks mostly went sideways, but underneath the surface corporate America kept doing just fine. Roughly 85% of companies beat earnings estimates, and 2026 is shaping up to be the 3rd strongest earnings year of the past 25 years. Not the setup you’d expect from reading the headlines.
And then there’s the economy, which continues to refuse to fit neatly into anyone’s narrative. Job growth slowed, but unemployment barely moved. Consumers say they feel lousy, but they keep spending. Inflation is still higher than anyone would like, but should slow considerably as energy prices come down. And the market rarely waits for everything to make sense.
Our job isn’t to chase whichever story has captured the market’s imagination. It’s to ask a much less exciting (but more important) question: What is already reflected in today’s prices? The urge to act is often strongest when the case for acting is weakest.
CNBC interviewed Sam Huszczo, CFA, CFP’ on Where Wall Street Isn’t Looking. Read more here. |
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