Beyond the Headlines

Beyond the Headlines

How To Keep Clients From Making Decisions Based On Sensational Content

By Tolen Teigen, Chief Investment Officer, FinDec.

Recently, a client called concerned about a social media post by a person of stature who was predicting a big market correction. He was alarmed because this person had predicted other market events, and he wondered if he should indeed do as this person suggested and pull out of the market immediately. I told him that based on how my team interprets current conditions and data, I believed the prediction was exaggerated, and it temporarily put him at ease. He called a week later, distressed after reading another convincing post by the same person who was confident the market was going to drop. Was I sure he should not make adjustments?

The doomsday prediction did not happen—the market actually went up—and my client’s investments are doing just fine. The reality is, I get two or three phone calls a week from clients who have been rattled by what they are seeing on television or the internet about events that are being portrayed as potentially having significant negative impacts on the market.