Jon was sharing with me this diagram. Not exactly the words in the oval (I added them), but pretty much for the scale from pessimism to optimism and belief to skepticism. I found it apt to relate people in the market. Non-investors are generally skeptical and pessimistic about the stock market. They believe the stock market is dangerous and it is not worthwhile to take the risk. They believe they cannot make money from it so they stay clear of it. In fact, the scary stock market crashes and bad economic news put them in constant pessimism. In a bull market, retail investors are rife with greed as they are optimistic about the stock market. As they do not have any strategy or proper risk management, they will believe in whatever tips or recommendations from experts, analysts or friends. During a market crash, retail investors will turn from greed to ......