

How do news reporters come up with a reason for why most stocks went up or down on a particular day? - amichail

I've always thought this to be really strange.  How could they possibly know the major reason (e.g., bargain hunting, uncertainty about X, etc.)?
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pickme
They don't know. They just find any reasons to support what's happening.
Hindsight is 20-20.

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amichail
So how is this responsible journalism?

It reminds me a bit of web 2.0 bloggers who need a news angle to mention a
startup no matter how weak/silly that news angle might be.

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pg
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47993>

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dfranke
Watch out for pump-and-dump schemes on tootsie roll pops.

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dfranke
By the way, this might be the strangest sentence I've ever written.

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byrneseyeview
In a few cases, it's really obvious (the company's earnings are out; their
stock is way up; thus, they beat earnings), but in most cases journalists have
to write something no matter what, so they write something plausible.

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jamiequint
They are Fooled By Randomness :) (good book)

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davidw
I was thinking the same thing. He calls it the 'narrative fallacy', saying
that people invent stories after the fact to give a reason to things.

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jamesbritt
See also The Halo Effect, by Phil Rosenzweig

