Selling Stocks Into Short-Term Political Drama Is Costly

Last week stock market investors continued to cling to, if not actually climb, the wall of worry. Stocks were flat for the first week of the government shutdown, but that masks the intraday volatility seen last week as drops were quickly reversed each day. The market moves last week were in part prompted by reports and rumors emanating from Washington, D.C. on the state of the negotiations over funding the federal government and lifting the debt ceiling.   The funding for the federal governmen...