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

  • December 10, 2010

    What would happen if I jumped the turnstile at my local tube station?  Well okay, duck under in my case. Best case: people glare at me like I'm scum.  [...]

  • November 30, 2010

    All About Alpha has a post called Insider traders: rogues or whistleblowers? It is a pleasantly disturbing look at insider trading in that it challenges the reflex reaction that [...]

  • November 15, 2010

    There are two types of technology: Good (does exactly as wanted, with no hassle) Primitive (all the rest) This classification has been instilled into me by my wife. The [...]