In order to make money. This is a serious attempt to get to the psychology of the "also rans" on this site. Serious answers please.
They don't want the world to end. They want everyone to *think* the world will end. That creates opportunity.
Good answer. I have several thoughts about this. Just want to see what comes out first. I for one think that traders think they are more "clever" when they are short.
Steve is right. False crisis provides opportunity to re-engineer society (or profit in the market). Its the Hegelian Dialectic or the ancient art of State Craft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic#Hegelian_dialectic Create the problem, that elicits the reaction, that demands a solution the architects desired all along. Rulers discovered thousands of years ago, the masses wouldn't blindly follow their leaders decrees. So the trick was to make the people want, what the Ruler wants. For War, taxation, power etc, the false specter of an external threat is presented that only the Government or King can make people safe from. Stocks? Spread rumors of panic and doom, buy weakness against hidden strength, then ride the wave. The whole market is rigged in the macro-term. FED banks know interest rate trends and activity long before that information is revealed to the public.
That doesn't get to the crux of the negative psychology I was aiming at. sounds like a conspiracy theory to me...with all due respect.
It's very easy (I find myself doing it too) to look at all of the lazy, incompetent, corrupt people around you including politicians, every sector of business, all sectors of government and everyday Joe Sixpacks........and think these people are f*cking it up. That leads you to think all of these systems cannot possibly be functioning in a productive manner and will inevitably come crumbling down. This mindset will make you want to short practically everything (or long gold). Just look around at our world leaders. They are laughable. Look only at the POTUS or the guys who were very close to winning that office recently. Bush, Obama, McCain, Gore, Kerry, Hillary..... these people are all less than impressive, IMO and yet are leading the free world. It can be easy to fall into that pessimistic trap, IMO.
Yes they do. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking we're about to collapse though. I have to fight these feelings myself and I'm generally pretty positive about the US.