Stock Market Quoted As Saying ‘The Reports Of My Demise Are Greatly

I have been writing for Seeking Alpha for over a decade now, and I have also been running a service for investors for over a decade as well. And, I think I have seen it all.

One of the things that still strikes me is the extent to which investors will go to cling to their market perspectives no matter how much you try to explain to them how their old perspectives are not accurate or how much you attempt to open their eyes to new perspectives. You can present as much evidence as you want, you can provide as many examples as you want, yet there will still be a huge number of readers who are unwilling to accept anything beyond their own views. There are truly a lot of closed minds out there who simply love the way their blinders fit upon their eyes.

Well, after my last week’s article, wherein I outlined why I do not believe news, earnings or fundamentals drives the overall stock market, I had someone email me on Seeking Alpha telling me that:

“You miss the point in your article that the primary drivers in the market are earnings and news. You have it backwards in your article. Sentiment does not drive earnings and news.”

Did this person read the article wherein I outline my view in detail? No. Did this person read the book I challenged people to read? No. I have 66,000 followers on Seeking Alpha, 8,000 members to my services, 1,000 money manager clients, but this reader tells me that I “miss the point.”

So, allow me to make my point again. I understand what this reader understands when it comes to news, earnings and fundamentals. But, when I challenge this reader to also learn what I know, well, I’m met with the response “I miss the point.” He does not even both to understand what I’m trying to explain. And I simply cannot have an intelligent conversation with such a person.

Therefore, I’m going to reiterate my point, and I will try to go a bit slower and provide a bit more depth to my points.

Folks, I understand what you fundamentalists understand. But, until you understand what I do about market sentiment, how can you challenge me as to what is the more pervasive power in the market? How can you have an educated and meaningful debate with me if we are not working on the same plane of knowledge? How can I take your challenges or critique seriously if it’s not based upon the same knowledge that I have about sentiment? Would you walk into an operating room and tell the doctor that he’s “missing the point?”

Let me go into a bit more detail about my view on market drivers, and I’m going to be paraphrasing what I learned from the author of the book I challenged you all to read: The Socionomic Theory of Finance.

The main issue that we must address is that it is unworkable to apply analysis of economics in the forum of finance. In fact, it has been an abject failure at the times when it was most needed.

After the analyst community failed to foresee the market swoon off the 2000 market top, on…