Do We Deserve A Stock Market?

Posted by Howard
on April 26th, 2009

Since January 2008, my hedge fund has treated the stock market as closed when all the momentum to the upside was destroyed. At the time, I was long and on leverage and enjoying a few years of momentum. That ended fast and since than I have been mostly writing and upping my investments in start-ups. As Stocktwits has grown, my trading activity has picked up as well, but my fund’s allocation to stocks remains light as I am waiting for a thick list of all-time highs.

I spent the weekend in Boulder which seems a lot like Pleasantville. You land at Denver airport, which is like landing on the moon designed by Americans (depressing), but within 40 minutes you are in Boulder which is a fantastic place.

The energy is high and it seems like the last thing on anyone’s mind is the stock market. That’s good, because it should be. In Boulder, everyone is doing the start-up thing…granted it’s all leisure, beverages and web start-ups, but at least people as a group are thinking long-term and getting outside :) .

I believe that there is something seriously wrong with markets and our behavior when $XLF (a financial index) is 70% off of its peak and $SKF (a leveraged ETF short a basket of financials) is at its all-time low (thanks stocktwits member MyHappyTrading ) !

Right now, America would benefit from not having a stock market. The stock market has absolutely warped some great American minds and set us back now at least 10 years if you look at S&P performance. Our leaders are watching it closer than the Stocktwits community and that just seems wrong. Furthermore, most of the people on Stocktwits would be doing a better, less conflicted job if asked how to attack the financial mess we are in today.

I have voted with my portfolio dollars since January 2008. I am not in the minority. The people that should be listening to this…are not. They are wrong.

Of course the stock market is not going away, but it’s broken and you would do well to spend less time worrying about every tick and focusing on building your business.

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.