Stock market In the 17th century, the economist
Adam Smith described an "invisible hand" that guides markets to
produce just the amount and variety of goods that the public needs. The stock
market has its own "invisible hand." The purely self-interested
actions of thousands of buyers and sellers result in the purely blind workings
of the stock market—the sudden shifts in activity and valuations, the
bubbles and crashes—as well as the market's notorious properties of stupendous
intricacy and frustrating unpredictability.
