Ignore it all

As I sit down to write this article, almost every stock market in the world is forming a graph that is a 'V'. By itself, this is nothing remarkable. However, the depth of the 'V' in Japan on August 5, 2024, was absolutely ridiculous. That day, the Japanese market fell 12.4 per cent, and the very next day, it was up by 10.2 per cent. The August 5 decline was the largest one-day drop in history. The Japanese economy is no stranger to market swings, but to have the biggest-ever decline and then an almost complete recovery in one day is a bit extreme, even for Japan.