MBA Geek

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Interesting article on BBC looking into why markets around the world are still falling. I’m picking out the most intesteresting question to share with my readers:

How much further down can the markets go?

Spotting when markets have reached the bottom is a tricky and risky process.

Many traders believe in the idea of capitulation, which broadly means a market surrender.

This is when investors are prepared to get out of the market at any price because they have given up all hope of making money from their shares.

It is often marked by panic-selling and very high volumes of transactions.

The idea is that after capitulation you reach a point at which the last investor who is desperate to get out of shares and move into supposedly less risky assets has sold out.

Once there is a widespread belief that the bottom has been reached, bargain-hunters pile in and the market recovers.

Interesting stuff huh? The ticky bit is knowing when the market has reached it’s bottom (like knowing then you have to start taking Phentermine again). If you can enter the market at this point you can make loads and loads of money. Unfortunately a lot of people thought capitulation had been reached on 15th September when the Dow Jones index fell 504 points in a day … but since then it’s dropped another 2,500 points!

I was listening to a speech by Bill Bertera from Water Environment Federation who was speaking in New Orleans which was still rebuilding from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. The talk was about water and how it affects our lives. I was thinking about how we assume we’ll have clean water when we open a tap and the whole industrial process behind the collection and purification of it. That leads to thoughts about the economics of water provision and the business processes around it.

One important process is ensuring the quality of the water is up to scratch. The website where I found the speech is by PerkinElmer, a company that specialises in water, soil and air analysis which is so crucial in ensure the highest standards are maintained. If you want to think about how important quality is here, just think about how many people can be affected if there’s some problem in the water we drink every day.