Some ideas from Jeff Augen
Most investors who buy a stock believe that they are investing in a company. That view, while technically correct, is also misleading. A stock investment is really nothing more than a bet on the direction that money will take as it flows through the financial markets. A stock can rise only if market forces align to aggressively drive up the bid price causing new money to flow into the stock.
Many different factors are involved including economic news, announcements from other companies in the same industry, political events, the actions of large institutional investors, analysts' forecast, and a variety of global economic forces such as changes to currency exchange rates and interest rates. the long-term performance of a stock represents nothing more than the compound effect of these forces over time.
It is important to recognize that the financial markets are zero sum game with ......
