2006-07-28Today's Thought of the Day comes from John Succo...

2006-07-28Today's Thought of the Day comes from John Succo at Minyanville. The CEO of DOW was on financial TV last month telling the world how great things were and how positive he was on the company. Yesterday the stock blew up. We never listen to what people say. We don't listen to Ben Bernanke. No one can tell you anything about the future. You can have an understanding of the state of things, but not how people will react to that state. Trends are uncertain and even CEOs can't tell you much about them. Trends in products that have wide profit margins (insurance) can change overnight trends on products with small profit margins (toothpaste) are more stable, but the companies are more levered. We only listen to numbers. The sooner people understand this the sooner they will stop losing money trading stocks. Everyone has an agenda. Numbers do not: people can make the presentation of numbers false, but they cannot make the numbers themselves lie. So the next time any media says something, take it with a grain of salt. Before you invest your hard earned money, look at the numbers. John Succo / MinyanvilleMish:Thanks to Professor Succo and Minyanville for that thought of the day. Today's number to look at is the GDP. Here it is in all its glory: