A Key to Getting the Best Investment Information In 2025

Chris emphasizes the importance of distinguishing anecdotal evidence from statistical truths in both investing and broader decision-making. He critiques media narratives, sensationalism, and disinformation strategies, likening them to tactics used by investment scammers. Using examples like COVID coverage and the myth of the "Santa Claus rally" in the markets, he encourages listeners to focus on long-term strategies over emotional triggers or irrelevant details. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street Podcast, explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Okay, we're gonna practice some skills here today on the
Watchdog on Wall Street Show. One of the things that
I've tried to accomplish over the years. People listening to
this program, I want you to come away with skills,
skills that will help you in everyday life and obviously

(00:37):
in particular when it comes to your portfolio. We've talked
about this often, talking about get Rich Quick, Connors being
the world's second oldest profession and I've broken down how
they go about, I guess, getting people to part with
their money. And it gets the same type of concept

(01:03):
and practice that is done by the media to sell
a narrative, whatever it may be. It's all about, quite frankly,
getting you to believe bs disinformation and that's a popular
word nowadays, disinformation. You got politicians, we gotta fight against disinformation.

(01:26):
We gotta fight against this, gotta fight against that. But
then you go to you go to watch a news program,
you go to read a newspaper or a story long
time listeners. I was in particular as of the past
several years, I've been making fun of this. Often these
journalistic endeavors, these anecdotal stories that they come up with

(01:47):
where they have an idea and then they find somebody.
They find somebody to back that idea. You need to
be able. You need to work on a skill. You
want to be successful when it comes to the markets.
You want to be someone who is not sold to
bill of goods. You don't want to be taken for

(02:09):
a fool. You need to be able to separate the
anecdotal from the statistical. NASA Nicholas Talub talks about this,
talks about the salient. If you are say, let's let's
let's bring up the Wolf on Wall Street or the

(02:31):
movie boiler Room or some of these investment con guys
out there, they will focus on the salient, the emotional,
the emotional what we'll pull at your emotional string, your
green button, whatever it may be, and get you to

(02:52):
focus on that, get you to believe that, think about
it in term. There's a COVID. There's another great example.
You know you are going to die and then they
would show somebody dying of COVID or present pictures. But

(03:13):
again they weren't taking the wider picture, the actual statistical
into account. It's it's always about focusing on a detail,
a minor detail, getting you to focus on this rather
than seeing the big picture. I hope I'm trying the

(03:36):
best to make sense. That is one of the things
in our Markowski Investment's Financial Independence Top twenty. I can't
it must have been nineteen or twenty on the list.
Maybe it was twenty. You know, when you when I
give financial advice or when you give financial advice, you
want to know when you're doing well. You bore people.

(03:57):
You bore people this morning for example. This morning, for example,
I am doing my morning guest appearance and asked a
question about the Santa Claus rally that didn't happen when
it came to the markets, and I'm like, Santa Claus rally,

(04:17):
And I had to explain and rec I was being
a you know, it's they love to talk about these
nonsensical things. I'm like, there's no such thing as a
Santa Claus rally. That is a detail that they came
up with at some point in time to get people
or focused their attention on, you know, not what's in

(04:41):
their best interest for their portfolio over the long run,
but the here and now. And you see this in
a myriad of different things. They'll put out some statistic,
some bit of information. Well this happened, this hasn't happened,
and since nineteen seventy seven, and it happened. It's all meaningless,

(05:05):
it doesn't matter. It gets you focused on the wrong things.
That's how, again, how the business media will do it.
That's how Wall Street will sell you some garbage investment product.
And it's the same way the mainstream media will sell
you a narrative or the government will sell you a

(05:26):
war or a vaccine, focusing on the salient, okay, not
the bigger picture. Watchdog on wallstreet dot com