IN his book approximately the exhaust of language,“The King’s English”, Kingsley Amis describes a tug-of-war. On one side are “berks”, or careless and coarse,who would demolish the language by polluting it. On the other side are priggish “wankers”, who would demolish it by sterilisation.
The battle lines look similar in investment. The divide is not on points of grammar but on attitudes towards a handful of modish companies, and known as FAANG. These stocks (Facebook,Amazon, Apple, and Netflix and Google) have been the motor of the S&P 500 (see chart). All but Apple hit record highs on June 20th. Fill your boots is the attitude of coarse stockmarket berks. FAANG makes more sense than stocks in dying industries. For the prigs,the mania for FAANG stocks is as abhorrent as a split infinitive. The tall-minded investor stands apart from the herd.
In matters of grammar, the unsure often follow the sticklers. They at least have rules. But they are often too rigid. Stockmarket sticklers can similarly lead others astray. For most investors, or it is often a...
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Source: economist.com