From athletics to the stock market: do records matter?
Records are not hard to come by in today’s stock markets, but should they matter to investors?
Floyd Mayweather’s victory over Conor McGregor set new records, including for earnings from a single bout and for the number of wins by a boxer without a draw or a defeat (50-0 for Mayweather, beating Rocky Marciano’s previous 49-0). If there were a measure for hype, then this fight would probably have broken that record too. Records are a big deal for sports lovers and stock-market watchers alike, though their significance can vary. The IAAF World Championships in Athletics, which took place in London in early August, provided interesting insights into the significance of records. Two South Africans, Luvo Manyonga (men’s long jump) and Wayde van Niekerk (men’s 400m) won gold. Neither set a new record, but these are two events where records have historically been hard to achieve (which makes Van Niekerk’s record time at last year’s Rio Olympics, of 43.03s, especially remarkable). Manyonga’s winning jump of 8.48m was short of the world record of 8.95m, set by Mike Powell in 1991 when...
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