According to Larry Fink, if you want to be a better investor than stop worrying about daily fluctuations and think of long term investing goals. Also, three major changes worth noticing have happened in past years which have long term implication on the economy. The developed world’s aging population is the first changing picture as the proportion of developed market population is expected to double (30%) by 2025. As a result labour force will shrink and greater people will take advantage of entitlement programs. It will be a challenge to all government to maintain the spending with such a rise. The phasing out of financial repression by U.S., i.e. financing its debt on own will benefit shareholders through capital structure arbitrage, while not appreciably hurting debt holders. These conditions will create a framework for equity optimization that allows risk asset prices to grind higher even in the face of what some believe are extended valuations. The rapid change in technology has displaced a lot from employment in many sectors. As such structural unemployment is expected to rise there will be a check on core inflation ( because inflation in real economy is generally due to wage increase). All these shifts matter a lot while deciding upon investment and also encourage corporations to engage in aggressive stock buybacks at the expense of capital reinvestment. Read more at: http://www.investopedia.com/partner/blackrock/articles/investing/072514/three-big-picture-shifts-worth-paying-attention.asp