Was yesterday’s stock market rally based on fundamentals or emotions? Come on, bro, you know better. But so what? Emotions (we call them “sentiment” or “psychology” on The Street) have as much to do with driving returns as actual earnings or interest rates do. That’s where the “P” in PE ratio comes from, after all…

Yeah, I said it.

Chart.

re: the Fiscal Cliff Mini-Deal, the stock market’s vote is in – they like it. I should qualify that – they like the fact that there is any deal in place, even if just a mini one. Besides, when is a mini anything ever a bad thing, anyway? Mini-skirt = good, Mini-M&M’s = good, Mini-iPad…

Cartoon

Going forward, use this heuristic as your map

Cartoon.