The Hindu Business Line : Enter, the market bell is rung

AFTER the latest crash of the Sensex, analysts are still trying to find out why the big fall happened, but many are just too resigned to attribute any sense to the mega movements. Isn't this the right time to come to terms with `market', even as market is a top favourite for business news?

For instance, the day's headlines scream: `Money market rates dip' (Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe), `Flight to quality as market slips' (Australian Financial Review, Australia), `Red-hot real estate market may cool' (Oakland Press, MI), `China to further open retail market' (Xinhua, China), and `Exclusive Asian oil market needed: Aiyar' from local media.

Market, as the Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines, is a regular gathering of people for purchase and sale; "an area or arena in which commercial dealings are conducted". An old saying is that three women and a goose make a market. But market is more than a place, shops, and traders; it also means "the whole area of economic activity where buyers are in contact with sellers and in which the laws of supply and demand operate," Encarta elaborates.

`Market forces' can act differently from what policymakers wish, for these are driven by economics; so those who think it should be possible to mandate that bulls stay away from the bourses may need lessons from King Canute on the seashore. Market, as in gold market or futures market, can refer to a restricted sphere of buying and selling. Bible talks of a pool called Bethesda by the sheep market in Jerusalem. However, free market is not a market of freebies but where government interference is absent.

Market can also be a part of the map, as rural market, or a section of the population, say, retirees market, or that of teens. "The traditional market is a city square where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the merchandise," recounts Wikipedia. "The Roman term for market, still in use in a related sense, is forum. The modern shopping mall can be seen as an extension of this concept."

Market has a size, measured in total demand or summation of transactions; and it can be slow or fast, depending on the velocity of deals. When market rises or falls, reference is not to people or places but prices. You can use market as a verb transitively to mean selling something, or intransitively as a synonym of going shopping.

"To market, to market, to buy a plum bun, home again, home again, market is done," chimes a Mother Goose rhyme, to signify end of a shopping spree that included a fat pig and hog before purchasing the bun. After handling all sorts of goods, you need to clean your hands, as the New Testament advises: "And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not."

For the origin of the word, I check the Online Etymology Dictionary. It traces market to the 12th century, and points to Old French marchiet, French marché, and Latin mercatus, that is, `trading, trade, or market'. Italian is mercato, and Spanish, mercado. Latin mercari means to `trade, deal in, or buy' and is from merx, referring to goods, wares, or merchandise.

The word market has acceptable cousins such as merchant, mercantile, and commerce, all from a common Latin root, but if you probe deeper, there can be strange results: Mercury is from Latin Mercurius, the Roman god, "originally a god of tradesmen and thieves, and from merx merchandise'; mercenary is from Latin mercenaries, that is, `one who does anything for pay,' or literally `hired, paid,' and has a link to merx; and, as if to compensate for that aberration, mercy, from Old French mercit, merci meaning reward, gift, or kindness, is also from Latin merx.

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary lists more markets, such as black market, "illicit trade in goods or commodities in violation of official regulations," down-market, "relating or appealing to lower-income consumers," and flea market, "usually open-air market for second-hand articles and antiques." On www.investorwords.com you can catch up with a whole bunch of other markets such as active and auction market, bear and bull, buyer's and seller's, capital and spot market, debt and depressed, emerging and imperfect, internal and inverted, primary and secondary, thin and tight, weak and wide, and so on.

Oxford Dictionary of Business has entries for quite a few phrases that have market as the first word. Thus, `market cap or capitalisation' is "the value of a company obtained by multiplying the number of its issued shares by their market price"; `market challenger' is "a firm that is fighting to increase its market share," even as a `market leader' rules firm. There is `market maker' whose job is to buy and sell securities, and also announce prices; and `market risk', or the possibility of adverse price movement, can be reduced by hedging. The financial glossary on www.bloomberg.com can tell you about marking to market, market sweep, market portfolio, market overhang, market jitters, market failure, Market Eye, and market-if-touched.

`Aftermarket' refers to "all products and services used in the repair and maintenance of vehicles after the vehicle has been sold," as explained by the Directory of Automotive Terms. Market figures in many common usages. You are `in the market' when looking for something, whether it is a good marriage match or a habitable house. What's `on the market' is available for sale, and to play the stock market means to buy and sell shares. However, `go to market' means "to become angry, excited, unmanageable," according to www.macquariedictionary.com.au.

What sells is what's marketable, as Celia aspires in As You Like It: "All the better; we shall be the more marketable." On similar lines, The Tempest would talk of "A plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable." "I would eat his heart in the market-place," declares Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, warning men to keep their hearts safe, but there's a grey market for live organs too. The Bard speaks of "the vulgar sort of market men" in King Henry VI, and they "come to gather money for their corn".

Elsewhere, "worthless peasants bargain for their wives, as market-men for oxen, sheep, or horse." Markets used to have opening bells as in a line, again from the same play: "Enter, go in; the market bell is rung". Bell ringing is gala occasion on the stock exchanges too, especially when a company's scrip is listed. Even as the market buffets, an apt quote is the one from Warren Buffett: "Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it." So, are you staying away from the market these days?

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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