Momentum investing, channel investing, trend following — all are buzzwords and/or excuses for not knowing economic pressure points or individual stocks.
Addiction to these approaches stems from their quick and dirty simplicity. Here is a good example:
You can quickly see the Dow shows no indication that it is going to break out of its upward channel. Investors should therefore rest comfortable that disaster is not imminent.
This “quick and dirty simplicity” is worth a thousand words — turning a thousand words into one instantly understandable chart. My sanguine view of the market comes from understanding economic pressure points, but it simply reassuring to see the chart agrees. It should only be used to confirm your market expectations, not to make them.
Plus, it saves me the trouble of typing a thousand words and saves the investor the trouble of reading a thousand words . . . whew!