Financial TV Is a Scripted Show and Your Retirement Is Paying for the Tickets

Wall Street’s Favorite Reality Show

The financial media has a lot in common with professional wrestling. The outcomes are loosely predetermined, the characters play specific roles, and the whole production exists to sell advertising, not to inform you. I know this because they tried to make me part of the act, and I told them no.

Doug Kass, a fund manager who used to be a regular on CNBC, has been calling this out publicly. He got pushed off the major networks. Imagine that. A guy who actually holds people accountable and tracks recommendations gets squeezed out while the same rotating cast of branding machines keeps their seats.

The Pre-Interview Scam

Here is something the networks do not want you to know about. Before you go on air, they conduct a pre-interview. They want to know what you are going to say before the cameras roll. The entire point is to manufacture the illusion of debate while controlling the actual content.

When I refused to reveal my answers in advance, they told me I was ‘too much of a wild card.’ Let that sink in. Honesty and unpredictability are disqualifying traits in financial journalism.

• They script the fight before the cameras roll.
• No recommendations are ever timestamped or tracked. There is zero accountability.
• The guests are there for asset gathering and branding, not to help you.
• The format demands controversy over substance, arguments over analysis.

Buy, Sell, or Hold: The Most Irresponsible Segment on Television

They wanted me to go on and tell a mass audience whether to buy, sell, or hold specific stocks. I refused then and I refuse now. Here is the problem with that entire format:

• I manage individualized portfolios. What makes sense for a 34-year-old with aggressive growth goals is completely wrong for a 61-year-old approaching retirement.
• A TV recommendation ignores your tax situation, your risk tolerance, your time horizon, and your existing holdings.
• Nobody on that panel knows anything about your actual financial life.
• And when they are wrong? Nobody goes back and checks. The tape disappears and they are back next week acting like oracles.

What I Do Instead, and Why It Works

I will be straight with you. My approach is not sexy. There is no algorithm. There is no proprietary trading signal. There is no breathless prediction about where the market is going next quarter.

What I do is build wealth over time through disciplined, individualized investment strategies. That is it. It is boring by design. Boring works.

Retail traders, people following the hot tips and the TV recommendations, lose money at staggering rates. The data on this is not close. A small minority of outliers succeed. Everyone else funds the other side of the trade.

• Slow and consistent beats fast and exciting over any meaningful time horizon.
• Individual circumstances matter more than any general recommendation.
• Accountability is non-negotiable. Your advisor should be tracking performance and answering for it.
• If your financial plan feels like entertainment, you are being sold something.

The Takeaway

The financial media is a performance. The guests are performers. The debates are staged. The recommendations are untracked and consequence-free. I walked away from that circus twenty-six years ago and never looked back, because your financial future is not a prop for someone else’s branding campaign. Boring, accountable, individualized wealth building is the answer. Everything else is the show.