Now’s the time to sell stocks because of the Greek crisis…
Oh, man, it’s all about Greece…oh wait. No, it’s not. Nobody anywhere is talking about Greek debt today and how it’s supposedly going to create contagion and collapse. You remember how palpable that “Greek debt is going to destroy the world’s economies” fear was a few weeks ago? To be sure, it’s not that we won’t hear about Greek debt again in a few weeks or a few months or whenever the idiot mainstream business media gets hoodwinked into it again. But the time to freak out about Greek debt is now. Not then. Not three weeks ago when everybody wanted you to panic about Greek debt and sell your stocks at the lows.
Rather, if you truly think that a default in Greece is going to happen at some point (likely, IMHO, but probably two to five years away) and if you think that such a default by the government in Greece would damage the world’s economies (not at all likely, IMHO, as Greece’s entire economy is smaller than Apple’s market cap) by spreading contagion (the contagion already exists and the game will go on as long as they can keep the music playing, which again, is likely to be two to five years, IMHO)…
If you truly think all of that — then go sell your stocks today. Don’t wait for the next time the mainstream media and the pundits and politicians it fawns over decides that these issues matter. Because they will decide that again. And when they do, the stock market will be responding like it did last time — by falling. And you’ll be forced to sell in a panic at the lows like they wanted you to last time.
Now’s the time to sell stocks because of the Greek crisis. If you thought you should be selling when the markets were 10% lower and the headlines were everyday all about Greek debt, then what are you waiting for? Lower prices again?
To be clear — I don’t care about Greece’s economy or Greece’s debt when it comes to investing (I certainly care about the people of Greece as a human being though). Greece was a total distraction. And it probably will be again at some point. Let’s be ready for that and remember how profitable it has been to follow our playbook which said to buy and buy aggressive into the teeth of that recent “Greek crisis bear market”.
As for today’s trades — I’ve not done anything yet. After having bought call options in three different positions yesterday, I’m not looking to chase into the rally today. We’ve got some huge gains of late and today’s pop in the portfolio raises the highwater mark again. Just typing that makes me very nervous. Easy does it for now.
I’ll be back with an Apple earnings preview in a bit.
