The market is funny & ridiculous, sometimes

What a Labor Day! I can take some time to think things over. Don't you feel that sometimes what is going on in the market can be very funny or ridiculous? Why? Look at the following:

A hurricane can send crude oil price up and down, up and down. Oil price has nothing to do with fundamentals like demand and supply. A hurricane should affect human lives and properties but my God, it is the oil price that the hurricane can manipulate.

When we are in recession or slowdown, people are worried that the Fed will drastically cut interest cut and cause inflation. But once the data released show a little light, people are worried about rate hike. Why is the market so emotional, so unstable and so speculative? What are we seeing now? A crowd filled by emotionally unstable patients?

When China's manufacturing slows down for a few months, people will scream and cry out that China will be in recession! What if the figures show a positive increase in manufacturing in the next month? The crowd will scream and spread fear that China will tighten monetary policy, etc.

When USD strengthens a little in the last few weeks, people will cry out that USD will jump and you must sell other currencies, Euro, GBP, etc. What if USD goes down a few days later? People will cry that we must buy gold to hedge against the falling dollar.

This is the market that I can see now. One slight wind or hint, then the crowd will swing to the extreme and another slight move, the crowd will swing immediately to another extreme. This is a WILD market in which there is no or very little rationality and control over emotions. Speculation and volatility are the main products of this market and perhaps, nothing else can be produced.

Don't assume that most people in the crowd are sound and rational investors. The crowd comprise a lot of speculators, traders, emotional investors and mindless followers of the herd. That is human nature, I think and that's why some may win and some lose.

What's going in the market reminds me of some famous lines in Shakespeare's Macbeth: "Life's but a walking shadow...a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing..."