When I was a rookie analyst, we heard all the time that “the stock market is driven by greed and fear.” When the market environment is in healthy balance, a tug-of-war takes place between optimists intent on making money and pessimists seeking to avoid losses. The former want to buy stocks, even if they have to pay a price a bit above yesterday’s close, and the latter want to sell them, even if it’s on a downtick.
