Bohemian, mini, pencil, A-line, wrap, midi, maxi, hi-lo...the skirts of the world.
In finance, the skirt length theory is simple. The idea goes like this: short skirts means the stock market can be expected to rise. Remember how pumped Shania is when she’s singing about men’s shirts and short skirts? She knows what’s up with the stock market. Bare knees, bull market, as they say. When skirts get longer, markets can be expected to fall. Grungier, less-sexy times ahead for the stock market and the catwalks alike.
Do investors take this seriously? If they do, they probably wouldn’t tell you. It’s more of a superstition or an idea than an economic indicator. Unless...maybe it really is. Minis in the early 80s...boho skirts in the late '80s (market crash in 1987). Remember how long hems were in the 1920s? They rose with the stock market...until The Great Depression, that is.
Since we’ve gotten all the way to micro-minis and thong-style bikini bottoms, there’s not much farther up we can go. Does the micro-mini mean the beginning of late-stage capitalism? Is it only longer hems from here on out, back on our way down from the peak of the economy?
Keep your eyes on headlines and hemlines. But don’t be creepy about it.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is Odd Lot Theory?37 Views
finance a la shmoop what is odd lot theory
well odd lot theory is an investment notion that presupposes that retail [Woman investor appears giving thumbs up]
investors are idiots the theory here is that when you see a lot of trades with
odd Lots you should basically do the opposite of what those trades are doing
like you know buying up a stock or selling down a stock or something like [Man throws stock away]
that well odd Lots are basically just small
order amounts like 22 shares here in 58 shares there in 77 shares here there and
everywhere and the idea is that odd Lots are almost always traded by small retail
investors who can't afford large blocks of stock and aren't wealthy so the [Stack of cash blows away]
presumption is that they're not experienced in stock market or have the
education or training to actually be making real trade schooled professional [Fire extinguisher blows out fire]
institutional investors who generally know what they're doing generally manage
large pools of money and trade in very large blocks like think big fat round [Stocks land around pool of money]
numbers in the millions of shares so when you inspect a tape running by
showing tons of tiny trades while odds are good that those are placed by you
know cardiologists and schoolteachers gardeners and plumbers all believing
that they can invest better than the market and the guys who make twenty five [People working in an office]
million dollars a year at goldman sachs yeah good luck with that and
statistically most retail investors who think they're smart enough to beat the
market are in fact idiots so the ethos of zagging in the opposite
direction of wherever retail investors are zigging well historically that's [Retail investor zig zagging]
generally been a really good idea they might be excellent cardiologists or
teachers or gardeners but when it comes to investing there well you know small
potatoes [Woman holding potato plant]
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