The 10-second version: Reading a daily and weekly newsletter is critical to developing and maintaining a view on what is happening in financial markets. This will allow you to make more informed decisions about your portfolio and avoid panicking at the wrong time. I read The Daily Shot and Morning Brew on a daily basis and The Economist on a weekly basis. Here is a snapshot:

Okay, let’s dive in:

Last week’s post on what is happening in markets was a bit in depth, so I want to dial it back a step. A pre-requisite to getting up to speed on the markets is developing an effective strategy to stay on top of the news and creating a framework to piece fragmented news into a larger story as you do so.

Why you should read daily/weekly newsletters

A couple of reasons I think reading a daily/weekly newsletter is one of the most important additions to your morning routine:

First – Learn to keep up with markets for investing: One of the biggest steps I took in staying up to date with markets was reading a daily and a weekly publication. After about a month I started to hone in on a few major trends/markets and would recognize when specific events would have an impact on them.

For example, a market I have been fairly obsessed with for the last couple years has been the oil market. On top of checking the prices of various types of oil every morning, I focus in on articles about OPEC agreements, US well supply, Middle Eastern instability, dollar strength, etc., and use the news to predict what I think will happen to the price of oil. 

Once I’d found three or four markets that I was interested in and thought would have an outsized impact on the economy, I was able to quickly scan news updates throughout the day to see if anything was happening that would affect them.

Second – Small talk: I have gotten pretty into football (specifically the NFL) in the last 3 years. Before that, I could barely name 3 players on the Falcons (my home team)…now I could probably tell you the 2^nd string running back on most teams. An extremely nice follow on benefit of this has been a fantastic ability to start a conversation with pretty much anybody in a low-pressure way (huge for Uber rides).

Following the news has a very similar benefit with your colleagues at work or your significant others’ parents…let me stress the setting (please don’t try this at a party…from experience, the Fed’s latest interest rate hike is not good pre-game conversation). That being said, an ability to intelligently discuss what’s happening in the world is a great way to converse with others and likely will get you some brownie points.

What I read

Okay, let’s assume you are convinced and get tactical. A lot of people have strategies to keep up with the news despite their very busy schedules, and I wanted to share mine in case you are looking for tips on how to fit this into your schedule.

Daily

I know that keeping up with reports on a daily basis is a pretty daunting task, but it’s one of the more important things to do in my opinion because it helps you keep your finger on the pulse of the market.

I usually set my alarm for ~20 minutes before I need to wake up, spend 5 minutes pretending my alarm hadn’t actually rang, and then for the remaining 15 minutes I skim The Daily Shot and The Morning Brew, both daily newsletters that give you the snapshots of what happened the previous day and what to look forward to for that week.

The Daily Shot (a WSJ newsletter) is a chart-heavy, very succinct, fairly technical newsletter of everything important that happened in global financial markets at a macro-level the previous day with a couple sentences to explain each chart. Because it is so data-centric, it allows you to form your own opinions about what is going on, which is very helpful for developing a trading strategy. Regardless of whether or not you sign up for the Daily Shot, a WSJ subscription is a must. There is currently a 50% off offer for a 6-month/1-year subscription.

The Morning Brew is a more light-hearted, US-centric, business briefing that also discusses major financial events. Unlike the Daily Shot, it is not chart-based but includes a lot of company-specific information that may not be in The Daily Shot. It is also free to subscribe.

Weekly

On top of daily articles to keep you updated on changes in markets, it’s important to dive a little deeper into specific topics. For example, developing an understanding of US-China trade tension at a more fundamental level to help understand recent market volatility.

This one is a bit easier to accomplish given that you only have to allocate ~30 minutes a week and can space the time out. I usually do this on Sundays, right after writing my post for this blog. I would highly recommend getting a subscription to The Economist for your weekly reading.

I read The Economist pretty much every week (I’m going to be honest, I probably only read ~5 articles from each publication). Nonetheless, the insights, writing style, and globally-diversified topics make this my go-to for weekly reading.

On top of both weekly and monthly readings, I recommend getting push notifications from MarketWatch or a similar source for timely news and reading books on financial history (in a post to come).

Bonus

If you are really hardcore, try writing a weekly summary of the most important weekly events that will impact financial markets. This will ensure that you are paying attention to relevant updates and will help you develop a better understanding of trends over time.

Next week, I am going to discuss some major financial indicators in the US and how to understand them when they are published in the news.

Until then, invest smart not hard!

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