Propaganda Moves the Masses
Price Reveals the Truth
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”
— Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928)
That quote matters more today than ever.
Because most people do not realize how heavily their thoughts, emotions, and decisions are shaped by constant information flow.
Trump tweets.
Breaking news.
Fear headlines.
Bullish headlines.
Economic narratives.
War.
Peace.
Every single day people are emotionally whipped around by information designed to capture attention.
And markets know this.
That does not mean headlines do nothing. Of course they matter in the short term. A tweet can move oil. A headline can spike bonds. A rumor can send the dollar flying for a day or two.
But none of that changes the primary trend.
That’s the part most people miss.
The truth in markets is that leadership matters more than narratives.
You will almost never hear me talking about aggressively shorting a market while semiconductors are leading.
Why?
Because leadership tells you the truth.
Dow Theory originally used transports and industrials as confirmation tools. The logic was simple: if industrial companies were strong and transportation companies were strong, then economic activity was likely healthy because goods were being produced and shipped together.
That concept still matters today.
But in my opinion, semiconductors have become the modern version of that signal.
We live in a technology driven economy. Semiconductors sit at the center of AI, cloud infrastructure, defense systems, consumer electronics, data centers, automobiles, and basically every modern growth industry on earth.
When semiconductors lead, the market usually follows.
And right now they are leading on almost every timeframe.
