Economics, finance and pseudoscience

Beware snake oil salesmen!

Economics

Bloomberg columnist Mohamed El-Erian recently lamented that the discipline of economics “is divorced from real-world relevance and has lost credibility.” Among the problems he mentions currently afflicting the field are the following:

The proliferation of simplifying assumptions that lead to an “overreliance on excessively abstract estimation techniques and approaches.” Insufficient consideration of the possibility that financial dislocations can disrupt the economy. Poor and grudging adoption of important insights from behavioral science and other disciplines. An oversimplification of uncertainty. An overemphasis of equilibrium conditions and mean reversion, and an underemphasis on structural changes and tipping

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The most important plot in finance

In this post we look at the one plot that proves that technical analysis is useless.

Technical analysis and horoscopes

As volatility has returned in recent months, investors have sought advice from asset managers and other investment professionals. In many instances, such advice includes technical analysis (TA). Even many highly respected investment firms and financial news sources promote TA:

Charles Schwab represents TA as an indispensable tool for active traders (examples: here and here). Merrill Lynch offers a Market Analysis Technical Handbook. Some Bank of America / Merrill Lynch analysts utilize technical analysis: here. Fidelity considers TA an advanced technique

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