Example 671 of Why to Think Long Term

It isn't often I get a chance to impress a bunch of 20 year-olds, otherwise known as my kids, but it happened yesterday.

We are down in Florida on vacation, and over breakfast--well brunch; they don't get up early--I said with absolutely confidence that I could predict how the stock market would do for the day.I promised it would drop.

How did I know? I didn't of course. But I did read a story in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal about how stocks were up 20% from their November lows. The story went on to hint that maybe the carnage on Wall Street was over.

Any time a media person says "A," think "Z" and so I predicted the down day and I was correct. The Dow fell 2.7%

The point: Ignore day to day gyrations in the market.

(And if you take your older kids on vacation, don't expect to eat breakfast at a normal hour.)