TheStreet.com’s Marek Fuchs criticized this weekend’s Barron’s for a story that suggested investors buy technology stocks in the fall because they have gone up in the last three months for the past couple of years.
Fuchs wrote, “Of all the flatfooted theses that are thrown around by beginner investors, the flattest of all is that there is a particular season in which to invest in a particular product or sector.
“Buy ice cream stocks in the summer because that’s when people eat the most! Get shares in jacket makers in the winter because, well, I’m sure you get the picture. And chances are, like me, you expect better of the business media.
“But there was Barron’s this weekend, leading with this: ‘It happens every autumn.’
“It wasn’t talking about brightly colored leaves floating to the ground or The Business Press Maven falling into a sugar coma after raiding his children’s bags of Halloween loot.
“It was actually talking about how technology stocks rise over the final three months of the year. The headline was ‘Playing Tech’s Rise and Fall,’ and the sample?
“The Nasdaq has outperformed the S&P 500 in the fourth quarter over the past five years. Over the past 10 years, the Nasdaq has ‘trailed the broader market only three times.'”
