Expert Speak- The Art Of Saying Nothing

Over time, market experts have become quite accomplished in saying absolutely nothing meaningful or useful but yet appear wise! One of theinterviews I read recently was a classic. Here is the way it went. Commenting on the prospects of the market, Mr X (Head of Broking or Research or MF or FII or Advisory or some such) said, “ Investors have turned cautious ahead of the key events such as Economic Survey, Railway budget and Union Budget”. Now that certainly seems like logical doesn’t it? But what does it really mean? Nothing. Cautious, meaning, are they buying less or is it that they are selling what they have bought? Maybe it means they are buying cautiously or should we make that selling cautiously?

Before we can finish digesting that, the gent comes up with another, “The expiry of F&O Feb series due later this week is keeping traders and investors on tenterhooks”. One more logical sounding statement?. With expiry around the corner, are traders all nervous and prancing about, wondering what to do and just dying for this kind of comment! But what does it say to them? Should they rollover or should they not? What about all those chaps who are not part of the F&O market- are they on ‘tenterhooks’ or not? If not, what are they on? And doesn’t the F&O expiry come like a clockwork every month? Isnt it a normal feature of the market? Then why tenterhooks?

As though these pearls of wisdom were not enough, our friend, the expert, adds solemnly,“Important data to watch out for would be the Jan infrastructure industries data and the Fiscal deficit numbers which are to be announced later this week”. Hey, thanks, dude, for that incredible insight! I would never have known that I have to watch out for these unless you had told me to! But wait a minute, what did you tell me to do, what exactly do you mean by ‘data to watch’ ?What is important about this data? Who says it is important? And what is it important to? What am I supposed to do? I don’t have a clue how to look at this infra industry data stuff or what its relevance is and you have not really bothered to say anything else. And fiscal deficit numbers! Gosh, I know they are supposed to be some big deal and all that, but, like, what the devil is it? And what will be the damn impact on the market?

Net value of all those fact-based statements? Zilch! But the journalist or TV reporter who asked the question and got this absolute stonewall of an answer simply thanked the gent, went and printed it! Who is at fault here- the person who put the question or the one who gave the answer? Or is it both? Only thing for sure- the investor/trader who reads this kind of stuff gets zero value. But that brings to question a fundamental element- is it at all about rendering value to the viewer/reader or is it just only about filling up print space or air time? I am still thinking of the answer. If you come up with something, do write to me.