Fast Money Investment Advice: Turn the Volume Down

We often marvel at the "advice" and "insight" proferred on CNBC. Here's the latest example, overheard at roughly 3:46 EST Monday:

Dylan Ratigan: Other names that you think are really violent in their upswing and they hit your radar and you think, man, you gotta take this?

Pete Najarian: Well, I think you look over at a Mosaic (MOS) or you look at some of those ag names, Potash (POT), for instance. Great move on some bad news recently. Across the board, about three or four of those names, warning, the outlooks, everything else. And yet those stocks today are just rocketing higher. Big moves in a very big, fast way. You've gotta take a little bit of those profits off the table.

When we hear something like that, and then look at charts like the one below (a six-month chart of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan), we have to wonder: Exactly what "profits" is Najarian talking about? Sure, by definition, some traders bought POT near its Friday morning(!) lows. But the vast, vast majority of current shareholders acquired their shares at higher prices, most of them substantially higher.

click to enlarge

So the only crowd to whom Najarian's "take-your-profits" advice applies would be the ridiculously fast money crowd. And, with great respect for Pete, somehow we doubt those stock jockeys are watching CNBC at 3:45 to learn what they should do next.

The rest of the investing public would do well to turn the noise down. Way down.

Comments

[ericinNE:]

Clearly, you're still stuck in the "investing" mode. This has been a trader's market sicne January. Investors had no business here until recently, and that's still debatable. Wanna be an investor, fine. Expect lots of lower portfolio value for awhile. Fast Money speaks to the trader mentality, and they make no bones about pointing that out, and often. Najarian bros are probably some of the sharpest traders out there. Their frequent comments about needing to nimble and flexible must have fallen on deaf ears, for you. The "taking profits" comment applies to those that have made any, noone else. If that's not you, and the other "investors," you're barking about it don't mean squat.

2008 Dec 09 06:06 AM

[Think-About-It:]

I like your short piece and would offer an adendum; turn CNBC's FastMoney off. Just more noise.

2008 Dec 10 12:02 AM