Apparently, the government floated a health insurance operation this week. You might have missed the news, given how quietly it was marketed, but trust me, it did happen.
Medibank was the story of the day, week, month and maybe even the year, given the amount of money thrown at the float, and the ongoing speculation about the share price and the likely (and subsequently realised) scale back in the number of shares each investor would receive.
But while the investing public, analysts and fund managers we're all talking about Medibank, a funny thing happened: The rest of the economy was business as usual.
The world keeps turning
Medibank grabbed the headlines, but Rio Tinto continued to mine iron ore. Caltex pumped more petrol. People used Telstra's infrastructure to surf the net and make calls. When the lights went on, AGL clipped the ticket.
When Medibank hit the ASX for the first time at midday AEDST on Tuesday, people were out shopping, eating and playing. Tradies were building houses. Coal trains wound their way towards port. In short, life went on.
And not just life, but business. And many of those businesses are listed on the ASX. So why the fuss about Medibank? Well, in short, because that's what the government, brokers and investment banks wanted us to be talking about. In the economic reality of supply and demand, as the latter rises, so does the price.
Given all of the talk, you'd think Medibank was the only game in town. But there are almost 2,000 companies listed on the ASX — a reasonable chunk of which are better (potentially much better) value than Medibank. But those companies didn't hit the headlines this week.
Look beyond the headlines…
Medibank is a great example of what we might call 'headline investing'. It's the tendency to focus only on what's being served up, talked about or asked about. In the last couple of weeks, Medibank's been in the news. So have iron ore companies and oil businesses. Macro fears are ever-present.
The news reports are absolutely spot-on — they're covering big-picture stories that matter and that people care about. That's their job. But as investors, our job is to carefully filter the news to make sure we're giving the appropriate weight to those issues, in the context of our portfolios and the companies we own — or might buy.
It's likely that 95% of the companies on the ASX won't be written about in the media this week. And that a good chunk of those are better investments than the 5% that were featured in the business pages.
… and the bumps
Similarly, the ASX has been bumpy over the past few months. The ASX 200 is back at the same level it was in mid-February this year. September was a bad month. October held steady and so far, November hasn't been kind.
It's enough to make some investors switch off and leave the market altogether. If that's you, let me make a plea: Please don't.
Please don't let short-term fluctuations scare you out of long term returns. Please don't focus on the short-term volatility, and miss the forest for the trees. The stock market has been — and continues to be — a wonderful way to build your wealth.
