Gold or Pyrite

Abstract

The individual investor is faced with an ever-increasingstream of traditional and electronic sources of often contra-dictory financial information. This survey examines the rel-ative importance of government economic indicators, printmedia sources, and broadcast media programs to equitymutual fund managers. We find that these professionals ratethe Philadelphia Fed Index—a regional summary manufac-turing measure—as significantly more important to theirinvestment decision-making process than other better knownmeasures. At the same time, The Wall Street Journaldominatesprint media sources while CNBC's Squawk Box signifi-cantly dominates other broadcast media programs. The find-ings of this survey suggest that individual investors cansignificantly reduce the volume of investment informationsources in their investment decision-making process.