I wrote some time back that I would occasionally explain in ordinary English the industry specific jargon and clichés that you may see in newspapers or other media reports. Here are a couple that are doing the rounds at the moment:
Markets are climbing the wall of worry – there are a great many reasons to expect markets to fall back from overly confident price levels, but momentum is keeping them climbing and that is how it will be. This one makes me think of Humpty Dumpty!
Bull markets don’t die of old age – there is no fixed period for the optimistic, raising prices (bull) stock market cycle. Although there is no doubt a cycle, it does not occur in neat sine waves with evenly spread peaks and troughs. The current bull market might be a longer one than usual – that is the hope. This one makes me think of The Who’s song My Generation (‘I want to die before I get old’) and the 75 year old Roger Daltrey!
My cynical observation is that when you see these phrases in regular use, people are looking for reasons not to be rational about obvious risks. Geo-political risk just got more serious.
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