ABSTRACT
Our perception of the world has a strong impact upon how we behave and interact. This can be affected in a variety of ways. For instance, the successful advertising of a consumer item has the power to encourage people to buy it, whilst unsuccessful campaigns can have an undesirable effect, sentencing a product to live out its remaining life on the ‘everything must go’ shelf. Consider also, for instance, the way in which the price of stocks and shares can be influenced by traders’ perceptions. In a scenario where one or more trader(s) rapidly buys more and more shares of a particular company, this can generate a signal that the company concerned is a good prospect, which can easily influence the behaviour of other traders. Here, a change in the intrinsic value of the company is not required (although it will probably be desired) to catalyse a reaction from the traders – a change in their perception of the value of the company or shares is all that is needed.1
