The Trump administration subpoenaed multiple New York Times reporters over their coverage of Air Force One security concerns. Not stock tips. Not insider trading. Security concerns about a f*cking airplane.
The reporters wrote about problems with the new Air Force One. The administration responded by issuing subpoenas. This is the part where I'm supposed to explain why this matters to your portfolio. It doesn't.
Air Force One is a plane. A very expensive plane that you already paid for. The reporters noticed something might be wrong with it. The government's response was to legally threaten the people who noticed. None of this changes the fact that you bought Tesla at $380 because your cousin said it was a sure thing.
Subpoenas don't move markets. They don't change earnings. They don't affect your ability to lose money on options you don't understand. The S&P 500 doesn't care that journalists got legal papers. Boeing's stock price has nothing to do with press freedom. Your calls expired worthless for completely unrelated reasons.
The New York Times confirmed the subpoenas happened. The reporters were doing journalism. The administration was doing whatever you call it when you subpoena people for writing things you don't like. Neither activity generates alpha.
You could read seventeen articles about this story. You could form strong opinions about governmental overreach and the First Amendment. You could tweet about it forty times. Your account would still be down 34% since you started trading.
The government threatening reporters over airplane coverage has exactly zero predictive value for tomorrow's market open, but you'll still check futures at 3 AM like it matters.
Photo by Grigorii Shcheglov on Unsplash
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