Stocks are crashing, so you turn on the television to catch the latest market news. But instead of CNBC or CNN, imagine that you can tune in to the Benjamin Graham Financial Network. On BGFN, the audio doesn't capture that famous sour clang of the market's closing bell; the video doesn't home in on brokers scurrying across the floor of the stock exchange like angry rodents. Nor does BGRN run any footage of investors gasping on frozen sidewalks as red arrows whiz overhead on electronic stock tickers.
Instead, the image that fills your TV screen is the facade of the New York Stock Exchange, festooned with a huge banner reading:
"SALE! 50% OFF!" As intro music, Bachman-Turner Ovrdrive can be heard blaring a few bars of their old barn-burner,
"You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet." Then the anchorman announces brightly, "Stocks became more atractive
yet again today, as the Dow dropped another 2.5% on heavy volume - the
fourth day in a row that stocks have gotten
cheaper. Tech investors fared even better, as leading companies like Microsoft
lost nearly 5% on the day, making them
even more affordable. That comes
on top of the good news of the past year, in which stocks have already lost 50%, putting them at
bargain levels not seen in years. And some prominent analysts are
optimistic that prices may drop
still further in the weeks and months to come."
The newscast cuts over to market strategist Ignatz Anderson of the Wall Street firm of Ketchum & Skinner, who says, "My forecast is for stocks to lose
another 15% by June. I'm cautiously
optimistic that if
everything goes well, stocks could lose 25%, maybe
more."
"Let's hope Ignatz Anderson is
right," the anchor says cheerily. "
Falling stock prices would be
fabulous news for
any investor with a very long
horizon. And now over to Wally Wood for our exclusive AccuWeather forecast."
Ref: Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham