Do you think stock markets are competing with each other or working together?

Question

I was just asking about how when Wall Street goes up, other markets follow or when Asia goes up the other markets follow, etc.

Are they "competing" with each other or do you think that they are essense playing in unison as one world market?

Answer 1

Stock markets simply track the underlying businesses in an economy. So, I don't think there is necessarily any competition or collusion between stock markets.

Instead, these markets seem to move in tandem because when the economy is good in the United States, we import more, which affects the economy and underlying businesses in other world markets. There is a strong correlation between how the markets move, but it is not the result of any cooperation in order to make it do so.

Answer 2

I was in the investments biz for 25 years-and no longer have any ties-and don't believe most of what the financial "pundits" say. I believe markets in the US are largely controlled by large institutions-especially since the 1987 crash-the morning of the day after, markets were down huge again but several large institutions came in buying large amounts-the day finished way up. We know the Fed Chairman had meetings and calls with all the largest members in the morning, after which the market turned. I spent many years working with futures & institutional brokers and know what news should move the market. But for a number of years, it's been wrong-even when there is bad news(economic numbers), they are touted as "good" somehow.

Since markets are interglobal these days, we'll never pin it down-but there are powerful players that trade with each other in different countries-can't believe there isn't collusion...