The Zurich Axioms: The rules of risk and reward used by generations of Swiss bankers

by Gunther Max

from any given day’s viewpoint, the market’s future is just as likely to be bad as good. There should be pretty nearly an equal number of bears and bulls around. Yet if we are to go by the newspaper columns, bulls are vastly in the majority. Why? There are two explanations: First, bulls do, in fact, outnumber bears – by a very big margin. The reason for this is, of course, that optimism feels better than pessimism. So even if a conscientious journalist were to beat the bushes for an equal number of quotable bears and bulls, with the object of writing a carefully balanced report, he would be frustrated by the fact that bulls are considerable easier to find. Second, financial journalists don’t usually seek equal bull bear representation in any case. Why not? Because they prefer interviewing bulls. The song is sweeter. So even if there were an equal number of the two species wandering about on the Street, the bulls would still be over represented in the reports.