When To Pay Attention To The Stock Market (And When To Ignore It) | FiveThirtyEight

Excerpt from a timely stock market reality check; also see A Wild Week for Stock Markets (The New Yorker)

"We don’t write much about financial markets here at FiveThirtyEight. That’s intentional. Markets are important, but there’s already lots of good coverage out there. There’s also lots of really bad coverage — the deluge of minute-by-minute market data makes it incredibly tempting to see signals in what is really just noise. We don’t follow every up and down of the market because, unless you’re a trader, it just doesn’t matter.

But there are times when even non-traders should pay attention to the markets, either because they’re so bad they’re affecting the rest of the economy (think Lehman Brothers in 2008), or because they’re sending a signal about bad news around the corner. How do you know when to do that? You can’t, at least not perfectly. But by following a few simple guidelines, you can avoid getting caught up in the hype and stay focused on what really matters."

When To Pay Attention To The Stock Market (And When To Ignore It) | FiveThirtyEight