Part 1: Whether the market goes to 1000 or 20,000, PB investment pros focus on clients' needs

It's easy for the markets to rattle us. Whether it's seeing the value of your portfolio rise, then fall and rise then fall again, or your home's worth substantially lower today than it was two years ago, no one is insulated from market gyrations or the resulting stress it can create. Not even Palm Beachers.

Top any unsettling news off with market forecasters predicting more bad times to come and it's no wonder people aren't taking advantage of the many investment opportunities that do exist in this economy.

In July, Robert Prechter, publisher of the newsletter Elliott Wave International, predicted that the market was on its way down. Way down--- to a low of perhaps 1000 and or levels not seen since 1982. Believe his point of view, the fear of thinking that your portfolio will diminish to next to nothing alone could cause you to make some not so wise investment choices.

But speak with Palm Beach money managers and you'll learn that keeping up with the latest market forecasts like Prechter's, isn't something they spend their any of their time dwelling on. Even though he did successfully predict a couple of things; the beginning of a bull market in stocks in 1982 and also to get out of them before the crash of 1987.

"We only have so much time in our day and I don't' get paid to sit around to think about all of the different theories out there," says Michael J. Dixon, director of planning and wealth management at Carl Domino, Inc. "Our clients want us to consult to them what we really believe is best for them with respect to their portfolios."

Robert Harvey, of Harvey Capital Management, who has been managing money in Palm Beach for more than 40 years, fells much the same.

Ask him if he thinks the market is going to fall to 1000 or 5000 and he'll tell you he doesn't think about predictions like that. What's important to him, with respect to market direction projections, is history.

"When you look at the history of the stock market, you'll see that we go through periods of flat and down. And even though the market has been flat for 10 years, the history of the 10-year holding periods are in your favor even though this last 10 years didn't prove out."

Click here for Part 2: Whether the market goes to 1000 or 20,000, PB investment pros focus on clients' needs.