(January 5 – 10:25 ET) – Bradley Skolnik, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, is cautioning investors against getting swept up in market manias.
Skolnik warns investors to be patient and stay diversified. “We need to remember that the only certainty in life and the stock market is change. The best strategy is to spread risk through a portfolio of stocks and mutual funds and to be patient.” His statement came on a day when most world markets took heavy losses.
Skolnik stresses that investors should avoid chasing trends, whether they’re dealing with brokers or they are do-it-yourselfers. “I used to worry, and still worry, about brokers churning their customers’ accounts. But now I worry about online investors churning their own accounts.” Skolnik says academic research indicates that the more you trade theworse you do.