Here are some things I think I am thinking about:

1 – Scary Stories Sell Well.  Morgan Housel has a great piece over at Motley Fool about why scary stories sound so smart in finance. Morgan rings off a bunch of reasons why scary stories usually sound smarter than bullish stories. This is particularly important to keep in mind when we’re going through rocky times like right now. Scary stories always sell well. And for good reason. People respect doctors for the same reason they respect financial market bears – they’re looking out for you. The problem is, in the financial markets, the bears aren’t always looking out for you. They often have an agenda that involves being permanently bearish. You know the usual characters…

In fairness, there is great value in bearish news. I actually spend as much time reading bearish sites as I do reading bullish sites. Reading views that you don’t always agree with will keep you grounded. In fact, most of the news I get is stuff I disagree with. But a permabear can be just as dangerous as a permabull. The extreme views are often the most dangerous views. You have to carefully decipher the scary news you read to avoid falling into the trap of becoming permanently bearish about the world. Because the thing is, the economy and the financial markets spend a lot more time expanding than they do contracting. Being a permabear is fighting an incredibly strong long-term tide. And as I like to say, nothing is more expensive in life than being permanently negative about everything.

2 – Nassim Taleb is Smart.  I really liked this quote from Nassim Taleb:

It is a myth that markets are there for the discovery of “the” price. Markets are there so we can keep changing opinion about the price.

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) January 25, 2016

Perfect.  How many times have we heard how the markets “discover” prices?  What does that even mean?  I have no idea.  This process of “price discovery” seems a lot more like lost explorers than brilliant conquerors.

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