Why the best investment advice is too boring for TV

Harold Pollack of The Atlantic writes about why the best investment advice of buying and holding stocks is not well suited for television business news.

Pollack writes, “That’s precisely the message the financial media ought to send in turbulent times, when ordinary investors are most tempted to engage in panic-selling—or alternatively, trying to be clairvoyant in timing global-securities markets. The truth is that the same boring index funds that made sense last month, last year, and five years ago still make sense today.

“Unfortunately, there’s one huge problem associated with this valuable message: No one would be excited to watch a business-news show or to buy a financial magazine that continually reminded them to simply invest in low-fee index funds. No advertiser is excited about it, either—who would want to advertise stock-market newsletters, commodity futures, or actively-managed mutual funds on programs that constantly remind viewers that these goods and services should be shunned?

“Dispensing dicey stock-market advice provides a much better financial model for business media, if not for viewers. At best, listening to personalities’ investment tips is a waste of time. But it’s often worse than that. Much of this advice is harmful (though probably less harmful than the financial products being hawked during the commercial breaks).”

Read more here.