3. The information could be old, and not reflective of current positions;

4. The writer may have an axe to grind with Soros' politics or ideology, and;

5. Soros' market call could be wrong.

It isn't just Soros who is cited regularly in these kinds of posts and articles. Michael Price and Larry Swedroe do an admirable job of taking down the perennially wrong pundits who cite this random fact or that ad-hoc tidbit as empirical support for their views.

We have discussed aspects of this before. In this vein I have pointed out some folks who make the same market call year after year, regardless of what happens in the economy, markets or with corporate profits. Marc Faber’s annual prediction of a “1987 like-crash” is a perfect example. He did change it up earlier this year, when he said that “asset markets will crash like Titanic.” Despite a seven-year streak of being wrong, he must be awarded points for creativity for that one, substituting events that occurred 104 years ago for those that happened merely 30 years ago.

I don’t want to pick on Faber, who is an appealing media personality and makes for great entertainment whenever he speaks about any subject. It's just that entertainment isn't a sound base on which to build your portfolio. Lots of talking heads are much worse, and with more dubious motives.

Why does this annual farce go on? Because it works. Juicy headlines attract clicks, and people who make (and repeat) outrageous claims attract eyeballs and capital. Why people feel obligated to give their money to these mystics is beyond my understanding, but it is effective, and so it continues.

As a public-service reminder to pundits and click mongers -- people may forget, but the internet remains indexed and Google-searchable for a long time.

So please folks, don’t encourage this foolishness by giving in to the temptation to click on every salacious, but misleading, headline you see. You will only encourage them.

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