Are Financial Markets Part of a Quantum World?
We learn through our experience of the world about cause and effect. Scientists conduct experiments attempting to demonstrate cause and effect. Philosophers have discussed cause and effect for millennia in the abstract. Yet, with the growing exploration into quantum phenomena many of us are beginning to suspect that other factors are at play. Many have speculated about whether financial markets - specifically, the pathway of price in those markets- may better be explained in quantum terms rather than in terms of cause and effect.
A technical stock analyst is argued by some to be better at his trade when he can block out or operate independently of news of fundamentals. Some purist quantum theorists maintain that news and an 'explanation' for price movement arrives afterwards to explain the latest price fluctuation. If true, it means that many of the 'reasons' we offer to explain or predict price movement are irrelevant and have little to do with the price movement itself. For example insider knowledge, market conditions, the economy, technological breakthroughs, new contracts are all irrelevant as predictors of price. This is a difficult notion for most of us to process. How can price move magically temporally in advance of any such typical explanations of price movement?
Well, those familiar with the quantum theory of the universe have no trouble understanding such a notion. For them past price behavior is the best predictor of future price movement whether it be up or down, and any awareness of real world explanations of the 'cause' of future price movements is a distraction. In fact, human nature being what it is, once a technical stock analyst is aware of any fundamental information concerning a stock his technical analysis suffers because he simply won't be able to look at the graphs of past stock behavior 'objectively' as he would if he knew nothing. This is what makes technical analysis quantum in nature.
What do you think? Could these quantum theorists be on to something?
Interesting angel! I'm also interested in looking at things from a quantum perspective. I would have loved for this piece to be longer. I want to keep reading!