Fiscal Tease

Is USA Today so desperate for readers that it feels the need to appeal to our greed? Take this headline from the July 22nd edition, for example:

“500% gain in 7 months! Here's how”

Stock market reporter Matt Krantz must be desperate for topics. I can’t remember the last time I read a story with as tantalizing a title followed by as much ridiculous “investment” rubbish.

Let me save you from wasting your time reading this drivel. Here’s Matt’s 20/20 hindsight driven plan for quintupling your money in mere months:

Pick the S&P 500 stock that will go up the most in the next month. After it does, sell it and buy the stock that will go up the most next month. And so on.

I will give Matt credit for mentioning the fact that these were “seven lucky stocks,” but nowhere does he state that pulling this off is about as likely as winning a million-dollar lottery (headline idea, Matt: (Learn how to turn $1 into $1million in just one day).

The point of the article is near impossible to discern. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t suggesting this crystal-ball strategy. Although his concluding sentence left me guessing:

“So don’t beat yourself up for missing these. Just remember there’s money to be made when others aren’t looking.”

Okay, and that means…?

I arrived at my own conclusion after reading (and rereading Matt’s essay):

Stop looking for investing advice in major publications.

Read the Article (if you must)