Category: Markets and Investments

More than a century later since the founding by Dow Jones of the world’s first stock market index, we’re still trying to predict the direction of stock prices and track broader economic activity through the use of these analytical indices, some of which have very odd names.

My grandfather, an avid stock market speculator in his day, once told me when I was a kid that most market participants had terrible investment performance even through some of the strongest bull markets. “Humans are herd animals, just like sheep,” he told me. “Even the professionals?” I asked. “They might be the worst.

Basically, Wall Street is filled with a bunch of monkeys in suits.” I was shocked, but apparently not enough to deter me from pursuing a career on Wall Street. The conversation with my grandfather pushed me to look at things a little differently throughout my career. I studied the great investors to understand what made them great and then applied what I learned…