It never ceases to amaze me how smart people get suckered into noise that’s generated by the financial media on Wall Street. Everyone knows we’re in the longest-lasting bull market in history, writes Mike Turner Thursday. He's presenting at MoneyShow Dallas Oct. 4-5.

Let’s look at the walls of worry that the markets climbed over the past few years. See how many of them you remember?

We had the European debt crisis in which Italy, Spain, and Greece were going to take down the markets. The fiscal cliff in this country. Government shutdown. Quantitative easing followed by quantitative tightening. China. Trump. Trade wars. Emerging market currencies.

And somehow, we’re at all-time highs in the markets. Be honest, how many of these events caused you to be nervous and maybe pull back from being invested in the stock market. That’s ok, it’s natural.

This is why successful investors might listen to the noise, but they invest based on signals. Here’s an example.

I was talking last week with a colleague who works on Wall Street about General Electric (GE). He said that GE was getting some buzz on the Street and a couple of firms had changed their ratings on the stock. He wanted to know my opinion.

I told him that my opinion doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is what the
chart says. So, we pulled up the Market-Directional chart on GE.

Brace yourselves, this is one ugly chart… if you believe the bullish noise.

chart

For the last 15 months, my Market-Directional chart has been giving a short-sell signal. GE moved underneath the yellow Transition Zone in the week ending June 23, 2017 – at $27.57 per share – and has been moving lower ever since.

My colleague said that GE has bottomed and is getting ready to move higher. Of course, he could have said that this past December and January when GE bounced 10% higher.

Maybe GE has found its bottom, maybe not. But I’m not going to put my money or my clients’ monies into GE until the stock signals that it has indeed turned around. So much for Wall Street gossip.

Remember, I don’t guess with any of my trades. It’s possible that the trades can move against me, but I know exactly what my exit strategy is before I get into a trade. This is all part of measuring where the market is and not trying to guess where it might or might not be headed.

The MoneyShow Dallas is coming up in a few weeks. It’s the first week of October and I hope to see you there.

The MoneyShow Dallas – October 3-5

If you’re interested in learning more about how I manage money using the Market-Directional Investing methodology, you can read more here.