It never ceases to amaze me the emotional make-up of the market, financial media, analysts, TV show hosts and a large group of investors who were worried about last week’s sell-off. People were citing various economic data and today’s headline reads “Stocks End up 1.4% Amid Recovery Hopes” when a few days ago the market goes down and the headlines read something like “Stocks Drop on Economic Worries.”

This is what happens when people think like this. Instead of Focus stock today, here is a different type of lesson:

Picture of sheep over cliff

450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey
Friday, July 8, 2005 9:59 PM EDT
The Associated Press
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported.
In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.
“There’s nothing we can do. They’re all wasted,” Nevzat Bayhan, a member of one of 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the herd, was quoted as saying by Aksam.
The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.
“Every family had an average of 20 sheep,” Aksam quoted another villager, Abdullah Hazar as saying

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