Beware Mr Market

January 31, 2011

Thinking of the market as having a personality can be fun and educational.  But it has a dark side as well.

Benjamin Graham

The idea of Mr Market was created by Benjamin Graham as a way of conveying the wisdom of fundamental analysis.

Graham’s intentions were to make people act more rationally.  Ironically, thinking of Mr Market may encourage people to act less rationally.

Intentionality

Markets may or may not have streaks but Mr Market will be held to have intentions.  We humans seem to think streaks will continue when we anthropomorphize the process.  Several experiments along these lines are reported in The intentional mind and the hot hand: Perceiving intentions makes streaks seem likely to continue.

Leave a Reply

Related posts

  • August 4, 2011

    Exclusively for finance professionals who have a background in science and mathematics and want to keep their interests alive, the 14-10 club meets on a monthly basis to hear [...]

  • August 1, 2011

    What do we lose when we use a benchmark? Simple Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. -- Albert Einstein Everything should be made as simple as [...]

  • July 11, 2011

    If a particular prediction comes true, how surprised should we be? The prediction The page that sparked my curiosity tells of a prediction made a year ago that the [...]