Death, taxes & single stock futures

摘要

How many times have you agreed to disagree with your fellow traders and topped off the conversation with, "That's why we have a market!"? There is a lot more to this bon mot than is apparent on the surface: If a consensus emerged on the value of any given asset, trade therein would collapse toward zero. It is precisely those commodities ― whose value either fluctuates violently or is so hard to determine by even the most honest and well-intentioned analysts among us ― that enjoy active trade.