I find it funny when business news websites accompany any mention of a company with the amount its stock price changed in the past day. Like, “Companies like Qualcomm (Ý4.18%) and Cisco (ß0.04%) …” Uh, I have zero idea what the price was yesterday, and even if I did, why does today’s change matter to me at all? I say stick the market cap in those parentheses instead with no indication of its daily change. “ExxonMobil (XOM - $302B!!!) announced…”
More broadly, I’m a little annoyed that people in business and politics seem to be obsessed with changes and largely ignore levels. GDP went down by a quarter of a percent. Carbon levels are up 5.8%. The unemployment rate is down 8%. But, wait, what is its actual level? Isn’t that even slightly relevant?
“Apple is down two and a half percent today” could just as well be stated as “Apple is worth over 840 billion dollars. Still!” It reminds me of that optical illusion where a dot in your periphery disappears from view if you don’t look at it directly. As soon as the dot moves, you see it again. Clearly, something in our psychology is thoroughly bored by stasis and highly attuned to change.
