Markets have long fascinated not just economists and finance specialists but also the great students of human nature. Marcel Proust wrote that “in the Bourse, every ill sovereign, whether he be King Edward VII or Kaiser Wilhelm II, is already dead; every town on the point of being besieged is already sacked”. Arthur Miller more bitingly had one of his characters say “The stock market represents
... [Show full abstract] nothing but a state of mind. Stock market speculators believe that nothing is real. If it is Monday and you want it to be Friday, and enough people can be made to believe it is Friday, then by God it is Friday”.