If a market falls in a forest and nobody is around, does it still make noise? People decided to tune in to September’s stock market pull back. The rather predictable and average shake up garnered significantly more attention than the two previous and similar pullbacks we experienced already this year. In both February and August we experienced pullbacks of over 5% and apparently everybody was on vacation. I know ISIS, Ebola, and the entire continent of Europe are scary, but so were the world ending headline grabbers of February and August. Be honest, without a Google search, do you know what those global economic deal breakers were? This 5 year bull market has stomached 19 pullbacks of over 5%. Since World War II there have been 124 bull market pullbacks over 5%.*     So if this is so normal, why all the angst? It seems there is a correlation between media cycles and how much people worry. September’s correction came during the height (or maybe low) of the election media blitz. The advertising onslaught is downright depressing and for a brief moment in time, we collectively care about politics and economics. There has also been a shift over the last 5 years. Access to information has been streamlined and we get updates, posts, links, etc. at lightning speed. Much of the information flow comes with no context and routine events are sensationalized. The access to information has increased exponentially faster than our ability to rationalize and analyze the information. I was recently approached by a well educated, successful man in his 60s. Referring to the market fearfully, he exclaimed, “We have never seen anything like this before!” At that point the S&P 500 Index, a broad measure of 500 U.S. stocks, had dropped to about just 1.3% percent below it’s all time high. Certainly this individual decided to watch the news that day and was captivated by what he saw. I suppose it’s a bit like waking up during surgery: it’s best not to.

As I write this, the pullback has mended itself and the good folks at CNBC are talking about new record highs for stocks. Unfortunately, many investors are left dazed and confused waiting for the next world ending headline. Pardon me if I exude a hint of a frustration. As an advisor committed to helping our clients create strategies and meet goals, it traumatizes me when good, smart people seem to rely more on media propaganda than on committed professionals for help and advice. The media’s job is not to help investors succeed. The media’s job is to keep you watching so they can create advertising revenue. What scares me is that people make critical decisions based on mis-information. In a recent Wall Street Journal survey, 29% of people think we are still in a recession. Fact: The recession ended over 5 years ago. A recession is not a “bad mood,” it’s a technical term referencing a period wherein the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country declines for two consecutive quarters. During the last 4.5 years, our GDP has grown 16 of 18 quarters (according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis). If an investor operated under the assumption that things were bad and kept their long term money on the sideline, they lost out on several generations’ worth of growth.

Investments should be made in accordance with an individual’s risk tolerance and long-term strategy, and neither should change at the whim of headlines or political banter. Diversification, conservatism, and preparedness should be hallmarks of a strategy; not emotions, greed, or panic. I’ll leave you with this anti-headline: Going forward, things will look much like the past. We will see corrections, some big, some small, all scary. One of the worst times to invest in history would have been January 1, 2008. An investor, who invested in U.S. stocks on that day, would have seen an annualized return of over 7% since then. The market has never moved in a straight line and it never will. But one thing is true: in all of the 124 bull market corrections since 1945, there have been people swearing that the market won’t come back. Every single one of those people have been wrong.