I love reading headlines – and then comparing them to the content that follows. This morning an article proclaims ‘Global stocks set for best month in over 6 years’ and then quotes % increases in world stock market indexes. The article reports that the MSCI World index strengthened 0.6% and was on course to record its biggest monthly rise since October 2002. But the global stock index is still down more than 12% in Q1 2009 after losing 22.7% in Q4 2008.

The only reason I made this brief post is to once again suggest readers not focus on % changes in this environment, but to focus on absolute numbers. Percentage changes can make things appear much better than they really are when the base from which the percentage is measured has deteriorated significantly in a short period of time. Accordingly, I suggest you read percentage change statistics with caution – and always consider changes (up or down) in the context of absolutes.

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