Writing about the stock market: An endless supply of ideas

Michael Regan is a Bloomberg News writer and editor based in New York, where he puts out a daily column on the United States and global stock markets. Lauren Meller of the Bloomberg public relations staff interviewed him about his work.

Here is an excerpt:

How do you find fresh topics to write about every single day?

Luckily for me, the stock market offers an almost endless supply of column ideas. I like to focus on the macro –what the main indexes and sectors of the market are doing, what the major trends are and what is likely to happen next. Then there are also a million and one stories to be told with individual stocks.

What challenges do you face with the column?

The difficulty comes in narrowing down the topics and choosing the most important issues of the day. I get up around 4:30 a.m., and during my commute to work, I start reading the news and my inbox, which is usually filling up with research and notes from traders, analysts and others in the market. Once I arrive at work, I get a sense of what the futures and overseas markets are doing and then decide on the topic very early, with the goal of getting the column published before noon.

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