Once upon a time...

in a land far far away, there was a beautiful meadow. On this meadow, there is a straight road. By the sides of this straight road, there were numerous coins of gold scattered. A traveller heard of this wondrous place and ventured forth along the road, happily gathering as much coins as he can. But just when he is so happy and elated and wanted to go back home. He seemingly fell into the ground and was not seen or heard from again.

Hundreds of travellers came forth too to this wondrous land. Some have seen the first traveller fell and ventured forth cautiously. Others started to gathered the gold but was determined to stay clear of the ground through which the first traveller fell through. Some crawled along. But one by one more and more travellers were seemingly devoured by the earth along the path. They were puzzled.

Soon a band of strangers came. They had ropes, poles and other equipment. They lassoed their ropes to the other end of the road where there is a tree and soon they had a tightrope across the meadow, along the path. They even had safety ropes and tied them to their harness. They probed the ground with their poles and started balancing on the tightrope.

'What were they doing?' Some travellers asked. Others ignored them and just picked their gold. Yet others taunted them 'Are you all out of their minds? There is a road to walk on'

But as the poles probed the ground, the ground gave way, revealing a steep canyon instead. This band of strangers deftly balanced themselves on the tightrope while scooping up the gold coins. Some of them fell, but because of their safety ropes, they fell not too far from the tightrope. They rested then hauled themselves up the tightrope again and continued scooping up the gold.

The stock market is just like this meadow.