Today's Stock Market Mimics Mexican Cliff Divers

As you may have seen, stocks took a nosedive today after news of weak earning reports from General Electric and Citigroup sent investors into a selling panic. Today was the biggest single-day percentage decline since April of 2005. I possess a rudimentary understanding of the markets and investing so am not a professional analyst but I believe that much of what caused today's drop in the markets was caused by investors reading only the headlines and not the body of the various earnings reports and news in general.

It is easy to get into a panic mode when you see the headlines of most news stories. After all, the headline is meant to grab your attention and draw you in. But if you only read the headline and then move on to the next one, you are not getting an accurate picture of what is happening in the world. The Dow has been on the rise lately and doing quite well, and not much has really changed in the world from last week to this one. Yet investors read some stories or in my opinion, read some headlines which spooked them and the results can be seen by looking at the closing numbers of today's markets.

Of course, this is simply my opinion and I could be wrong.