Predicting the future is hard work and only for the most thick-skinned of sorts. Cassandra was, by most accounts of her time, one of the best, even if few heeded her prognostications. It is likely her reputation was only elevated ex-post. Irrespective, there are many pitfalls to exhorting prophecies. Like being wrong (causing a decline in one's credibility). Or being right (which Henry Louis Mencken discovered, can lead to a derisive erosion in one's popularity). Or being right at the wrong time (an occupational hazard particularly common amongst stock market strategists).
But why Japan? The simple and uninspiring answer is that many moons ago, fate conspired to acquaint me with the unusual world of Japanese securities markets. Combined with a tragically comical facility to mentally store, recall, and visualize historical price-series, company balance sheets and income statements as well as lots of other basically useless information (but unfortunately, not my wife's birthday or our anniversary!), this has led to a rather pathetic and boring professional existence that pays the bills, but provides scant conversational possibilities with those who are not aficionados of the arcane world of the Japanese Stock Market and the machinations and undulations of which it is composed.
This Blog will (hopefully) provide a cathartic release for sharing various market curiousities that I've observed, and my related musings. If I am lucky, it might also serve as a genuine forum to further my/our/your understanding of previously unexplored or otherwise inexplicable market phenomena. And if you're really lucky, one may find herein the possibility of gleaning insights that will enlighten you to previously unknown opportunity, or save you from potential losses.