- Amazon's performance and customer focus continues to impress
- Being constantly tuned into the overkill of news flow is bad for investors
- Why I'd sell Unilever from my fantasy portfolio if there was a good alternative.
This week has seen a return to relative calm from the ridiculous goings on last week. Most long-term investors would have ignored them anyway and just kept concentrating on what really matters - company profits and the outlook for them in the future.
We live in a world of too much news and I am convinced that constantly being tuned into it - especially on the internet and places like Twitter - is not good for us. I have pretty much given up watching TV news and tend to catch up with what’s going on by listening to the radio news at night. I feel much better for doing so.
I adopt a fairly similar approach to investing. I do take an interest in the broader economy but more from the viewpoint of long-term changes and trends, rather than the day-to-day chatter on interest rates and exchange rates, as this is what will be the main driver of company profits and share prices.
The internet and the improved levels of disclosure from companies mean that the diligent investor has all they need to manage their investment portfolio from anywhere in the world. I feel that there is a real benefit from tuning out and just concentrating on the facts from company reports rather than listening to the vested interests of those talking up their own book on bulletin boards and Twitter.
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