The president-elect uses Twitter to disintermediate the press and it is incredibly effective.
You know when else it is effective? When you follow my feed and you see the vitriol directed, in large part, at me about stocks like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Bank of America (BAC) , to name two that got shot down today. I am sure when they hammer the airlines, I will take a blast on Twitter, too.
Normally, I do not care that much anymore. So many things have been said and written about me over the years that it really doesn't matter anymore. I block a lot of people and the days of fighting with anyone are pretty much over because it just encourages others to fight and, more important, it truly detracts from all the incredibly nice and helpful folks who tweet.
But, unfortunately at moments like this, I pay "collective" attention, say, to all the people who tweet that I have been pushing AMD to help people get out of it. Who are these "people"? I don't talk to "people" about what I am "pushing." And I have liked AMD for ages, still do, and it's gone up a lot. I am not a trader. I am not telling people to buy and sell AMD. I am saying it's had a big run and it can pull back.
Same with Bank of America. If you were to go back to the video, I have said I expect the stock of Bank of America to go down, but I don't know if it is worth it to sell it at $22 and change to get back in at $20 and change. Can it go back to $18? Maybe, but it's unlikely if the economy is as hot as Bank of America and the other banks say.
More important, it's been ages since we have had a pullback of any magnitude, and that tends to bring out the gunners and the trend followers and the people who don't even know why they like AMD or BAC or anything else they may own.
So it is painful to read about their gripes, not painful to me but to them, because these are the people who truly do belong in index funds and they are why I always say you should be in index funds with all but your mad money. That way, if you bought AMD at $10 and it goes to $8, you know it's not the end of the world.
I have thought the rails went too high a long time ago. If you listened to me, you would have left too soon. I had stayed for so long with Norfolk Southern (NSC) that I just couldn't justify continuing to like it. So I don't have involvement in CSX (CSX) .
But the airlines? I said last week that they would start going down on Delta's (DAL) numbers and that it was time to get selective and go back to Southwest (LUV) . The group had moved too much.
But because I had liked the group lower, I am now being tarred as having gotten people into them.
"Tarred."
Isn't that funny? I stepped up and told people to buy them when they were hated. And now I am tarred even though I said it was time to scale back going into Delta's numbers last week.
All of this comes back to the notion not that I am "good" or "bad," but that there are many people whom you don't want as your co-shareholders.
So follow the feed. You will know what I mean.
There are too many angry folks right now. Angry folks = weak hands. Weak hands mean those who fold when they probably just need to wait a few percent to find a bottom.
What can I say?
It's always been like this, the difference is that you have the Twitter barometer swinging so wildly you know there's pain occurring and, alas, it isn't over until they are done complaining and are back in cash, where they probably should have been the whole time because they just don't get what owning individual stocks is really about.
