The Most Dangerous Word in Politics

By Tobin Smith

Well, with all due respect to Mrs. Obama, we already have a rulebook in America -- it's called the Constitution. Our predecessors crossed oceans, risked their lives, died and voted for this set of rules. And our Founding Fathers didn't pepper it with a bunch of "shoulds."

So, my advice to all politicians is to quit using the word altogether and instead try saying something like, "My vision for America is …"

We are all eager to learn the vision a future leader has for the United States, but we are thinking citizens who choose our leaders and we want to match their opinion against our own opinions of which values and strategies should prevail.

But we don't need them, or anyone else, to tell us how we should be living our lives.

Lose the Word

Since investing, not politics, is my thing, I'll share one other observation.

I find many investors have a preordained concept of how the stock market should behave.

And when I hear the word "should" used in a question, I know that the person asking it is approaching investing with a closed mind and a set of rules they believe to be absolute.

I want to tell you that there are no absolutes in investing -- except maybe that whenever you think you've got it all figured out, you don't, and that things are never as good or as bad as you think they are.

"Apple should be a $225 stock" is an opinion.

"Apple should be trading better than it is" is a dogmatic wish.

In investing, as in politics, we'd all benefit if we lost the "should."



Toby

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Tobin Smith is the founder of ChangeWave Research, the editor of ChangeWave Investing and ChangeWave MicroCap Investor and a contributing market analyst for Fox News Channel. His market commentary can be found in the ChangeWave WaveWire and he provides more specific recommendations and advice through his ChangeWave Investing service. Click here to learn more about ChangeWave Investing.