Being optimistic is not ramping my friend. It's just people with different beliefs. As the article says, it's always best to buy when the markets are pessimistic. That's when you buy at a discount or on a sale. Unfortunately, the vast majority do the exact opposite. As i've said many times, people should buy a stock like they buy a house. When someone buys a house, they would not look at a screen everyday to see if the house price has gone up or down a few %. They buy for the long term regardless of articles suggesting house prices have gone up or down this month or the next. Same thing with stocks. They shouldn't be bought as a number, more as a business which an investor sees ticks certain boxes.
As Peter Lynch has often said, "If you can't stomach the market falling 50% in a year, you shouldn't be in the market at all". No one can predict the market, will always go up and down, more so today then ever with today's volatility. Ironically, more people today are short term traders when precisely because of volatility, people should be encouraged to hold even longer.
I would have to disagree in respect to the results. Despite the fines, the banks are deleveraging very rapidly indeed. It's a bit like RBS is in the pit stop. If there were no mechanics trying to fix it, would be very worrying indeed. However, there are many, many mechanics fixing this company. The bulk of that has been done, RBS will leave the pitstop and will be on it's way again revving up speed. These turnaround scenarios have occurred over and over for over a hundred years.
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