Yesterday saw the major US equity indexes fall over 2%.  Headlines blared “markets tumble!”  (Why say fall when they can say tumble?  Does 2% qualify as tumbling?  Which is the more image-evoking word?  Which is designed to get us to click on the headline or watch the story?  For shame ‘trusted’ media!)

The talking heads chimed in.  Reasons abounded from the tapering of Fed bond buying (didn’t we know this would happen eventually?) to a slowdown in China (the umpteenth one yet to materialize) to nervousness over Game 7 between the Spurs and Heat (or Los Spurs and El Heat for those who missed the NBA’s Noche Latina).

What do we make of yesterday’s activity?  Do we reach out to clients?  Surely not.  Daily market swings are almost always driven by emotion – hardly sound investment strategy.  Commenting on them is lending credibility where it is undeserved.  A prudent long-term strategy shrugs off days like yesterday.

On the other hand the wealth management business is no different than any other.  Perception becomes reality.  If advisors aren’t communicating with clients are we asleep at the wheel?

The first thing in this morning’s inbox was a newsletter containing a link to this useless (and if you check the date you’ll notice it’s a recycled) article.

Yes the fear mongers are out.  The headline says nothing about whether we should reach out to clients.  It’s a given.  Of course we should be reaching out to clients!  The headline isn’t whether we should but how to do it.  Pure weapons grade BS!

Our quick fix always on microwave fast food 24 hour TV/internet news Twitterverse has us trained.  No matter how slight or unimportant an event it must be reported, dissected, analyzed and opined upon.  That’s right, each and every of life’s events must be addressed as mission critical.  Did I mention my coffee is getting cold?  This is information everyone must know…but only if I can communicate it in 140 characters.

Are we having a bit of fun expressing frustration over it all?  Sure.  Media after all is an easy target – the proverbial low hanging fruit.  It’s naive, however, to imagine it has no influence upon us.  If it didn’t why does advertising exist?

The point of this morning’s rant is, as always, to provide context.  Does yesterday’s market activity matter?  Not unless one holds the belief that the global economic environment has changed.  If it has we’d love to see the evidence.  Unless and until that time comes we advocate the popular 1960s counterculture slogan:  TURN ON, TUNE IN, DROP OUT.

Peace man.