I brought this up in another thread. Remember the Obama years? When the DOW went up around 500 points, it was "Hail Obama" you are Jesus !!!,,but when the DOW was going thru a rough week, it was all Bush's fault. Right?
The DOW may have tanked close to 700 on Friday, Odds are leftist commentators were blaming it on Trump, but did the loony MSM ever bring up how much the DOW has risen since November 2016? Over 8000? 
,,,,and yet they probably bitched over a measly 600 point drop?
Odds, are CNN/MSNBC will remain quiet when the DOW hits 27,000. But when it drops 500 points, the left will be calling for impeachment and Nancy Pelosi will be demanding "President Bush" and Vice President Quail step down Immediatley !!!!
Actually, a sitting President has very little to do with whether it goes up or down. It tanked because people are fickle more than anything else. Once upon a time, it meant that the stocks were over valued for one reason or another or the rumor mill caused it to inflate and it was just adjusting. Stock Prices were tied to the dividends back then and if the company had a great year and was trusted to have another, their stocks went up. Today, it's more about PR than performance. Yesterday, it was the long haul. Today, it's about how much can I make right now.
Now, I am a pretty good poker player. I get about a 15% return on the investment at the table on the average. No fancy tricks, just follow the old soldiers rules and read the table. That means that I get about 15 bucks profit on 100 bucks investment. So I walk out the door with 115 bucks when I walked in with 100. That's called Gambling.
Then I decide to take my original 100 bucks and invest it in the stock market. l buy the latest and greatest stock. I pay 100 bucks per stock. I see it keep rising until it peaks. At that point, it stablizes and starts to readjust to make up for the PR value that has nothing to do with the Company at all. Finally, it stablizes back to close what I paid for it. Now, I have to start seeing the Dividends. The Dividend is a solid buck fifty and I am told that is fantastic by stock brokers and analysts. And they say this isn't Gambling? It's like playing the shell game with a crooked Illusionist handling the game. For the short term (if you are lucky and smart) it might make some good money. But in the long term, it's usually a suckers game.
But a good stock will stay close to it's value almost forever and maybe go up with inflation. At this point, pay attention to the dividends and the expansion of the company. Look for the company with the long haul mentality who will actually take care of your investment for decades to come. Can you imagine if you had IBM stock from when it first was created? How many times did that stock split? Your original investment would be in the thousands against a dollar.
Would I invest in the Stock Market? (I have done in the past) No. Unless it was very special. Maybe Grandma had the right idea hiding it under the mattress.
