Peter Lynch once described our human’s psychology about stock market during different cycles, in his book One Up on Wall Street. I remember he used a party as an example, and he looked at the number of people approached him (people know he is a fund manager), and the amount of conversations about stocks, as an unofficial indicator about the market. So, for instance, in a red hot market, almost everyone came up to him and recommended his/her stock pick; while in a bear market, people will talked about “how is the weather”, and pretty much regard him as a dentist.
According to my observation, we are somewhere in between at this time. I mean, people think the stocks are risky, if not toxic 🙂
I would really be interested in learn how this plays out in the gatherings of Chinese New Year back home.