Three stocks exist. Wall Street analysts like them. The analysts get paid whether the stocks go up or down. You do not.
The headline promises growth potential. Not growth. Growth potential. That's like your doctor saying you have potential to not die during surgery. Technically accurate. Profoundly unhelpful.
These analysts are described as "top" analysts. Top of what? The list of people who convinced CNBC to take their call? The summit of Mount Stupid? Every analyst is a top analyst until they're the former top analyst who now sells timeshares in Scottsdale.
The summary mentions fear of rate hikes and oil prices. Fear is doing heavy lifting in that sentence. Oil prices exist. Rates exist. Calling it fear is like calling gravity fear of floating away. The market doesn't care about your feelings. It barely cares about earnings.
Investors are told they can "look past volatility" by tracking stock picks with "strong long-term growth potential." Look past volatility. Just ignore the part where your account balance drops thirty percent. Focus on the potential. The same potential your high school guidance counselor saw in you before you became the kind of person who reads headlines about what Wall Street analysts think.
The article doesn't name the three stocks. Probably because naming them would require conviction. Can't have conviction. Might be wrong. Better to speak in the passive voice about unnamed securities recommended by unnamed analysts for unspecified reasons. It's journalism for people who think horoscopes are too specific.
Here's what happened: Someone needed to fill column inches. They called three analysts. The analysts said words. Those words became a headline. You read the headline. The analysts collected their fees. The stocks did whatever stocks do. And you're still here, tracking other people's potential instead of admitting you're just gambling with extra steps.
Photo by Andy Kennedy on Unsplash
Leave a Comment