Barron’s: Welcome to the Zombie Market

From Vito J. Racanelli’s If This Isn’t a Bear Market, Then What Is It? in this week’s Barron’s ($):

Welcome to the zombie market, one that’s neither bull nor bear, neither quick nor cold. Instead, investors stumble around in a stupor—as they have for the past two weeks—arms outstretched, feeding on the latest bit of stray economic nourishment.

Like zombies, they don’t scruple to understand, but instead fasten themselves to whatever information they can get their hands on: news, fake news, or rumors. It matters not…

And they lurch in great leaps, first one way, then another. We’ve seen that in the trading action of the past two weeks, down big one day, up more the next. Since late September, however, it has been mostly down.

Once a zombie investor is off in whatever direction sentiment leads, the rest—as in a Hollywood movie—follow slavishly. This is otherwise known as algo and bot trading. The zombie isn’t a particularly good evaluator of stocks.

My take: “Not a particularly good evaluator of stocks…” Does that apply in spades to Apple? Or does it just seem that way because we watch Apple so closely?

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