Deception and the Markets: Pilot Fish
The function of the pilot fish seems to be to lead sharks to find prey and then to leave them. The pilot fish has stripes on its body and apparently this sends a signal to the shark not to eat them. Blind sharks always have two of them in attendance. I wonder if there are pilot fish in markets? The most obvious would be the big accounting announcement of a restatement that leads one to search for other companies in the same industry with similar problems. The case of Enron and Dynegy comes to mind with the latter tanking so much later than the former.
A big
trend in one market, like bonds, always is or should be a pilot fish to me that
a pilot fish is coming in stocks. and that unmentionable place in Southeast
Asia was a pilot fish in July 1997 as to what was going to happen to close the
U.S. stock market on Oct. 27, 1997.
The
subject might be generalized to other areas of symbiosis in the animal world
and animal and plant world. the acacia tree and the ant, The clown fish and the
anemone, the ptarmigan and the antelope (which I saw in Africa), the barnacle
and the whale( the former of which E and I ate with relish in Barcelona), the remora
and the sea turtle and the algae come to mind.
How can
they lead the speculator to profits? The above reflections are from A Moveable
Feast, recommended by my daughter Victoria, where the rich coming to
Hemingway's Paris are preceded by nice well-meaning fellows who tell the
writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Picasso that the rich are nice
well-meaning and harmless, even though to the writer they are death, especially
if accompanied by a pretty young thing. -- Vic (10/29/3)
Comment
on Pilot Fish from Russell Sears (10/30/3):
Besides
the pilot fish that swim by the side of the shark there are pilot fish that
swim directly in front of the shark. Surely the vulnerability of there position
is apparent to more agile smaller fish.
Betrayal is what stuck me of the examples Vic mentioned. Hidden vulnerability
and betrayal. Huge sharks successfully hidden behind much smaller fish. As the
pilot fish apparent brethren were shocked to learn they were not really
capitalist, but scum looking for a free ride in the wake of the shark.
My
suggestions for spotting pilot fish:
1. Free riders, not producing the hard labor to achieve their
"success."
2.
Tricking others into thinking there is no problem, by not exposing
themselves to attack through a "gentlemen's agreement."
3. Huge
elephant successfully hidden by small mice.
4.
Harboring a "violent" killer.