Over the short term markets are driven by the sentiment of those buying and selling. Over the long term the markets are driven by fundamentals such as quarterly profits, interest rates, and events both domestic and foreign. Long term investors generally do very well by determining the intrinsic value of a stock. They will ideally buy the stock in a depressed market or use an approach like dollar cost averaging to avoid always buying at market peak prices. Either way they tend to make handsome profits over time. Thus the time frame for investing in fundamentals is five years, ten years, or longer. Fundamentals are important for those who trade options as well. However the time frame for trading fundamentals is not the same as for long term investing.The Market Only Cares When It CaresW