Should I Watch CNBC?

When I began trading stocks for a living, I watched CNBC, the TV stock channel, much of the morning and afternoon. It was my window into Wall Street. I studied the ticker that gave delayed stock quotes and paid particular attention to the stocks picks of their quests. I got lots of ideas on what to buy and sell.

But as I gained more experience trying to make money, I realized that CNBC was devoted as much to entertainment as it was to hard news. I remember the high school stock picking contest where students picked stocks using funny money. CNBC promoted their spectacular returns. I certainly wasn't doing as well as these bunches of tenth graders and at times I was a bit envious of their stock-picking acumen. But I was playing with real money, so I couldn't just bet on risky high-flying tech stocks and hope they went up.

Then, I noticed that certain guests routinely touted stocks with ridiculously high valuations and I began to wonder if these folks were telling us to buy while they were selling. Also, CNBC trotted out the same Wall Street pros week after week, all of whom said pretty much the same thing. The Wall Street Buy Machine had a national and international audience. And if that weren't enough, I realized that CNBC's ratings were directly related to how well the market was doing. So CNBC was a cheerleader for the market.

Now, I'm a bit wiser and I don't rely on CNBC for much information about the market. I have it on in the morning for 30 minutes or so to get the mood of the market and I may watch it briefly after the market closes to see what happened that day. But I'm no longer on the edge of my chair waiting for the next talking head to make a an pronouncement that may or may not have any substance.