Speculative Blow-Offs in Stock Markets – Part 1

Defying Expectations
Why is the stock market seemingly so utterly oblivious to the potential dangers and in some respects quite obvious fundamental problems the global economy faces? Why in particular does this happen at a time when valuations are already extremely stretched? Questions along these lines are raised increasingly often by our correspondents lately. One could be smug about it and say ‘it’s all technical’, but there is more to it than that. It may not be rocket science, but there are a few issues that are probably not getting the attention they deserve.
As you can see below, we have marked ‘Brexit day’ on the chart as well, which was another noteworthy juncture. Not only was the success of the ‘Leave’ campaign just as big a surprise as Trump’s election victory, but it was yet another occasion on which the market ended up fooling most observers by dramatically reversing course after a mere two days of relatively mild panic selling.

This post was published at Acting-Man on March 6, 2017.