A market top is something every investor fears. Thus, as you can imagine, Wall Streeters spend a lot of time looking for those signs. Traditionally, money managers, analysts, and economists focus on economic data, sifting through the numbers to glean signals that the market top has been reached. Perhaps interest rates are the key, or the Producer Price Index, or currency exchange rates. It's small wonder that Wall Street professionals pay lots of attention to statistics.
Many people think so.
But many others don't, arguing that today's low interest rates and high-technology environment make things different from the past. So far, they're right. It's clear that, in this market at least, the numbers aren't giving us the definitive answers we want. So let's consider another way to identify signs of a market top. Perhaps the most famous example is the story attributed to Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of the most renowned family in America.