Copyright (c) 2010 Scott F Paradis

The market is like a merry-go-round, a rollercoaster, a waterslide - you pick the amusement park ride. Thrill rides are a combination of foreboding, anticipation, sheer terror and exhilaration. The reason people love thrill rides so much is that they bring out intense feelings, emotions and sensations rarely experienced in the everyday humdrum. Even the merry-go-round, often a child's first introduction to the sights, sounds, and sensations of an amusement park, still elicit fond feelings of nostalgia and glee for harried adults who, having long ago abandoned the fantasy of the stampede, cling to fond memories of a by-gone era.

Hardly an adult thrill ride the merry-go-round still thrills. Have you ever watched a young child approach the merry-go-round for his or her first ride? Many watch on the sidelines mesmerized and enchanted by the glitz of galloping horses and pulsing of tinny music. Some want to clamor on board from the first second they absorb the energy. Others, more reserved and cautious, must work up their courage before joining in the fun. For many that thrill has transferred with no loss of intensity to a new theater, a new ride - the market.

Adventurous children throw caution to the wind. Impatient for their parents to acquire a ticket or for the gate to release them, the impetuous scramble aboard the platform and rush for the grandest beast they can find. Towering above the young child, the biggest mechanical creatures are stopped at the apex of their stride - at the highest point of rotation - far too high for a small child to mount. To the determined youngster, however, the height is just one more obstacle, like so many in an immature life, to overcome for the utter delight of the ride. So too, the market.

For the more reserved child, the merry-go-round elicits some trepidation. Observed from a distance, the safety of the sidelines, the merry-go-round offers the hint of a thrill. From the observer's point of view, the riders seem to be having such fun. But still, the speed, the size, the noise - all seem threatening. Maybe, in just the right spot - in one of the carriages, or possibly on a horse that doesn't gallop, but rather coasts along - this child can feel the joy and join in the fun. Just maybe the young child can push fear aside, and for a few minutes blend with the rhythm of the ride, the flash of the lights, the beat of the music - let themselves go. Perhaps strike it rich.

The merry-go-round, the roller coaster, the tilt-a-whirl, all amusement park rides leverage the same forces - gravity and acceleration - to manipulate rarely felt sensations that amount to seldom expressed emotions - thrills. People experience fits and jolts, twists and turns, catapulted ascents and gut-wrenching drops, all from a position of relative safety. Though the experience is controlled and artificial, the sensations are real. The speed, the power and the motion of amusement park rides arouse excitement people both long for and fear in everyday life, if only for a few moments.

The money-go-round, however, is another kind of thrill ride. The emotional rollercoaster of - finance, production and trade, risk and loss, success and failure, prosperity and poverty - draw out different, but none-the-less powerful sensations for the rider. The environment of the money-go-round is distinct from the amusement park. In the money-go-round the risks are not artificial, the results potentially uncontrolled. The money-go-round goes up and down, round and round, like the thrill rides of Six Flags. Unlike the amusement park rides, however, the money-go-round doesn't stop. You get on and get off, get in and get out, when you have something of value to offer or find yourself in need. Like the amusement park rides, though, the money-go-round offers plenty of opportunity for chills and thrills, highs and lows, ups and down. The money-go-round is one sweet ride.