Why There's No Value

I had an interesting conversation with my mutual fund adviser this morning, on the matter of why the current economy is in such a funk. In a time when most baby boomer retirees are looking to collect on their hefty funds, they stare dividend declines in the face, and there's not a damn thing we can do. Yet, there is a large contingency, including myself, that has been brought up by these baby boomers, who taught us to save, save, save, and I do, among many others that I know who are trying to commit as much of our paycheck to our retirement plan as possible, among the overwhelming amount of other outrageous expenses we all have nowadays.

When I asked my adviser if he thinks that the lack of efficiency in out financial system is the root cause of why the markets are crumbling, he said "Yeah that's a very large factor!" There was a certain confidence in his voice, that made me absolutely believe him. He went on to mention that when the "big boys" want to invest, they can do it, without delay, and that their money is immediately passed into the investments without processing, and stocks and the market can both be monitored and traded in almost real-time. Unlike, us, retail investors, who are forced to operate through corporate brokers, in order to invest, and often times these investments spend days if not weeks being processed, and there is no way for the average investor to analyze or monitor the market, and compete at all with said "big boys".

Confidence in investing means that the avenue that an investor uses to access investment must be a level playing field. Consider for example the old school marketplace. Trades were handled face-to-face, in person, and in real-time, thus allowing any buyer to see, feel, and have 100% confidence in that the investment would be put into action right at that moment. Now, in today's markets there are so many different market approaches, and 9 times out of 10 those markets are unseen, because they are operated by middle men (large corporate financial investment firms), and the markets are only available to them, and not the actual investor. Now because an individual is forced to use this system, he has to await processing of his money, in order for the firm to implement his investment. Processing takes time, and as they say time is money. If an investor knows about a good stock today, by tomorrow that stock may be a completely different story. And, that is where the confidence in the markets fails the economy.

Why is the individual investor's money processed? Why isn't the investment firm's assets placed in check like that of the individual? There is no confidence in the economy because the economic institutions don't have confidence in the buyers or the face-to-face consumers. Everything is kept in check, as if even hard assets are considered credit, until it is processed by a higher entity in the financial system. Not a single person wants to have confidence in something they cannot buy or sell on site. If it is not available at that time of value, what will its value be a few days later? Should he preserve their confidence in that product if they don't yet own it? Of course not.

In conclusion, it should be noted that in this day and age where our credit can be monitored faster then our ability to own stock, why can't the process of investments be improved. There is no excuse for our technologies to enhance this system, and make it safer, easier, and more substantial of a market for consumers and investors to invest in.