All that Jazz

I came across an article headline yesterday by seasoned financial writer Jim Jubak "Ride this bull,but be ready to jump". The sub-heading was " the stocks you choose and when you buy can make a huge difference". Wow! Really? That is it? Hard to believe that even in the face of several decades of good evidence refuting the timing and stock selection thesis, it is still alive and well in the popular media. Why? Because they have space/time to fill .

Job One in maintaining discipline (the first "D" in the DADS -Discipline/Awareness of Costs/Diversification/Structure philosophy) is to block out the day to day noise. That is much harder today because of the myriad of media outlets pushing drivel out endlessly. Financial science provides powerful guidelines on how to have a successful investment experience. That said, returns are more dependent on investor behavior than stock or fund performance. Long term, disciplined investors have historically done much better than the market timers.