Exante’s Patrick J O'Brien states that Professional Investors are leaps ahead of Financial Pundits when it comes to affirming their investment choices.
Professional investment firms tune into financial news channels like CNBC or Bloomberg for background noise and atmosphere, rather than as sources for actionable information; by the time the financial news media broadcasts a headline that might actually have market impact, the professionals have already received that information using more sophisticated methods.
For example, most investors monitor major economic news and indicators by subscribing to real-time news services. High-frequency traders go many steps further. Their algorithms are plugged in directly to news sources, parsing the feeds for actionable data that automatically trigger buy and sell orders.