Sex, Bulls and Naked Shorts

In Swept Up by Insanity of Markets, Joe Nocera surveys students of financial behavior. They pretty much agree that the markets are governed not by science, nor even art, but by emotion.

James Grant puts it this way:

People keep on stepping on the same rakes because money, like romance, is only partly an intellectual experience. Money, like sex, brings out some thought — but also much heavy breathing and little stored knowledge. In finance, the process is cyclical. Some people learn from their ancestors, but mostly they repeat the same mistakes. Thus it has always been and thus it will always be.