MDCigan

Headed For a Normal 20-30% Correction

"When people look backwards to see whats coming they often forget that our markets today have evolved. I am in no way saying that large corrections are no longer possible; what I am saying is that any analysis that reads "we will see big corrections because we saw them before" is overly simplistic. So, what was "normal" in the past is not necessarily what we can expect in the future. It seems obvious but when everyone's looking for explanations and making predictions it is easy to forget that past results are not indicative of future performance."

This is certainly within the realm of possibility, but I think this is highly problematic. IMO, the primary tool for making forward-looking decisions and considering possible future scenarios is past historical experience and past quantitative data. If one starts with the premise that the past is meaningless, then where does that leave you? It leaves you at basically making hunches and guesses based on absolutely nothing. My thought is the past represents a combination of both fundamentals and human psychology. I believe human psychology never changes so the cycles of the past are likely to be repeated in the future in a similar (but not exact) way.