DIY Fake News Generator –Was Gold a Better Investment, or Stocks?

Fawkes Anonymous Mask
  • The best fake news generator works based on real statistics.
  • Was gold a better investment, or stocks?
  • Select the appropriate time interval to manipulate the returns.
  • Or the proper stock market index.

Gold bars, high in demand in inflation times.

 

The Best Fake News Generator Uses Truth

There is a lot of controversy about fake news on the internet. There is even a fake news generator site. I hope you also want to know how to make these posts. Many politicians often accuse each other of falsifying statistics. Which the average person can rarely check because he has not studied statistics and economics.

The best, most believable results are obtained when the fake news generator works based on real statistics. The best counterfeit is made from an original. The best lies are made using truth. So let’s make fake news! Not so difficult at all. For example, let’s take the simple question of whether stocks are a better investment or gold?

Prove this, and also the opposite

With our DIY fake news generator, let’s prove both answers. We made two charts. The first one shows that over the last ten years, stocks have performed much better than gold. While gold rose only 39 percent, the S&P 500 index rose by 195 percent. Almost tripling its value. And the Nasdaq Composite Index rose to 456 percent. That means, if we invested $100 in a stock basket with a composition of this index, it increased to $456. The conclusion is that stocks were a much better investment than gold.

Chart 1: The gold Price (GC), the S&P 500 US stocks index (SPX), and the Nasdaq Composite stocks index (NDX), 10 years
Chart 1: The gold Price (GC), the S&P 500 US stocks index (SPX), and the Nasdaq Composite stocks index (NDX), 10 years (Tradingview.com)

Now let’s look at the second fake news generator chart. It shows the same investments, but for 20 years. The price of gold has risen over 400 percent. The S&P 500 index went up only 114 percent, to just over double of the original. And the Nasdaq Composite Index has nearly tripled its value. What means this? That gold was a much better investment than stocks. So, we “proved” both answers at the same time.

Chart 2: The gold Price (GC), the S&P 500 US stocks index (SPX), and the Nasdaq Composite stocks index (NDX), 20 years
Chart 2: The gold Price (GC), the S&P 500 US stocks index (SPX), and the Nasdaq Composite stocks index (NDX), 20 years  (Tradingview.com) 

The Possibilities of Fake News Generator Are Endless

The reason for the big difference is simple. There was the famous dotcom bubble in 2000 when stocks soared to the skies. But no one needed gold, so it was cheap. (Under $300, today, $1,735.) Because of the combination of expensive stock and cheap gold, the returns in the second chart are so high. But ten years ago gold was approaching historic highs, so it was expensive. And equities moved still on very low levels after the Lehman crash. Thus, from 2010 until now, their yields have been high.

We could draw many more charts, for 30 years, 40 years, or 60 years. Depending on what type of fake news we want to generate, what we want to prove. Only the proper time interval needs to be selected. It can even work in the long run. For example, in the stock market, it is important whether 1928, 1929, 1931, or 1932 was the starting point. During the Great Depression, for example, stock prices moved a lot. The result varies a lot because of the initial value. If we choose the high stock price of early 1929, stocks will not be a very good investment. But, if we choose a base value somewhere around the index lows a few years later, we can show a much better return on the stock market.

What Can We Do about Fake Comparisons?

All other volatile or cyclical products have similar waves. These can be exploited easily by fake news generators. Sometimes a lot depends on a single day or a week. It is worth reading analyzes where a wide variety of variations are calculated. They don’t just make a 5, 10, or 20-year time series.

What is too simple can often be manipulative. Or wrong. But there are simply no easy answers to many questions.

Oh No, Even More Fake News Generator Variations


The question “gold or stocks” gets more complicated if we ask “which stocks”? It is not a simple question. Many decisions are possible:

  1. Which period? (See above)
  2. Which stock market? (USA, Europe, Asia, a global index, developed or developing markets, etc.)
  3. Which index? (Only some examples in the US: S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, Nasdaq 100, Russel 3000, etc.)
  4. Total return index or price return index? (Total return indices include the positive effects of dividend payments and are so more realistic. S&P 500 Total Return and Nasdaq Composite Total Return indices exist.)
  5. Or, net return index, maybe? (Total return, but taxes discounted.)

For example, we could measure the stock market in the US with the S&P 500 (the “normal one”), the S&P 500 Total Return (dividends included), the Nasdaq Composite (all technology titles), or, the Nasdaq 100 index (the 100 major titles only in the Nasdaq stock exchange). The choice of index strongly influences the results.

(Picture in this text box: “Primorskaya railroad” Russian Stock, Wikimedia Commons)

“Primorskaya railroad” Russian Stock

 

 

 

Disclaimer

I’m not a certified financial advisor nor a certified financial analyst, accountant nor lawyer. The contents on my site and in my posts are for informational and entertainment purposes and reflecting my collection of data, ideas, opinions. Please, make your proper research or consult your advisors before making any investment or financial or legal decisions.

(Photos: Pixabay.com.)

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