Friday, July 19, 2013

Lars P. Syll — Keynes on speculators taking advantage of mob psychology


It may often profit the wisest to anticipate mob psychology rather than the real trend of events, and to ape unreason proleptically … (The object of speculators) is to re-sell to the mob after a few weeks or at most a few months. It is natural, therefore, that they should be influenced by the cost of borrowing, and still more by their expectations on the basis of past experience of the trend of mob psychology.
Lars P. Syll's Blog
Keynes on speculators taking advantage of mob psychology
quoting J. M. Keynes

Bingo. It's "go with the mo-mo" (trend momentum). Keynes was a trader in addition to be a mathematician that focused on economics.

Another gem: The ignorance of even the best-informed investor about the more remote future is much greater then his knowledge … But if this is true of the best-informed, the vast majority of those who are concerned with the buying and selling of securities know almost nothing whatever about what they are doing … This is one of the odd characteristics of the Capitalist System under which we live …


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