This essay expands on a dialogue that began with a simple yet powerful observation: a stock price only rises when someone buys it. While this seems obvious, it dismantles the traditional idea that stock prices are directly tethered to company fundamentals or intrinsic value. From this starting point, we build a postmodern perspective: financial markets are not rational engines of price discovery but chaotic, faith-driven systems where belief, narrative, and ritual sustain participation.

From Fundamentals to Faith

The Enlightenment-era model of finance assumes intrinsic value. In this model, a company’s profit, cash flow, and growth prospects determine what its stock ‘should’ be worth. Yet in practice, profits and fundamentals only influence prices when they inspire collective belief strong enough to trigger buying. A company can post excellent results, but if nobody buys, the stock does not rise. Conversely, assets with no profits—like meme coins—can rise dramatically because of shared narratives. Fundamentals are thus not causes of price but faith factors, symbols that gain their power from widespread recognition.

The Postmodern Turn

This realization signals a shift into a postmodern era of investing. The rationalist narrative of intrinsic value is displaced by the recognition that value is subjective, constructed, and contingent on mass faith. Meme coins, GameStop rallies, and the cult of Buffett all demonstrate that markets are driven less by objective analysis than by collective belief. Ironically, even Buffett himself has become an object of faith: his presence in a stock inspires confidence, and the price rises because others trust his judgment. He embodies intrinsic value as a cultural myth rather than a measurable reality.

Indices and Institutions as Faith Technologies

Indices like the S&P; 500 or Dow Jones do not merely reflect the economy; they create faith in it. When the S&P; 500 rises, headlines declare that the U.S. economy is ‘strong,’ reinforcing belief in national prosperity. Similarly, gold benchmarks such as the London Gold Fix or LBMA prices provide a reference point that stabilizes faith in gold, even though vast quantities of physical gold lie outside institutional measurement. These numbers act as technologies of faith—symbols that condense complex realities into simplified truths. Rating agencies like Moody’s function as clerics of risk, issuing blessings or curses that shape global capital flows. They do not discover truth; they manufacture consensus.

Bitcoin as Absolute Faith Mechanism

Bitcoin differs radically from traditional financial assets because it embeds faith directly into code. Its protocol enforces scarcity, transparency, and immutability. These properties create what can be called a faith-protection mechanism: belief in Bitcoin strengthens the protocol, and the protocol strengthens belief. This feedback loop is unlike any previous asset. In philosophical terms, Bitcoin may represent a Hegelian Absolute: it merges Enlightenment rationality (mathematical rules, scarcity, cryptography) with postmodern mythology (narratives of freedom, sovereignty, and digital gold). Bitcoin is simultaneously rational and mythical—logic fused with cult.

DCA as Ritual Practice

Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) is widely promoted as a safe investment strategy. Historically, it emerged from the growth of mutual funds and retirement systems, making markets accessible to the mass investor. But its deeper role is ritualistic. By committing investors to regular purchases regardless of price, DCA reinforces faith during downturns and maintains liquidity for the system. It is less about maximizing returns and more about stabilizing belief. In crypto culture, the phrase ‘stacking sats’ continues this ritualization. For elites, however, lump-sum insider trades dominate—they time thresholds, exploit flows, and act on esoteric knowledge. DCA is exoteric faith practice; lump sums are esoteric power plays.

Shadow Transactions and Elite Control

Markets are not transparent. Dark pools, over-the-counter trades, and internalized broker-dealer flows ensure that large portions of trading activity remain hidden from the public eye. Retail investors only see surface charts, while elites move unseen. This invisibility explains why markets appear rational to insiders—they have access to information and control. They can lump-sum at points of liquidity and exit at belief thresholds. To the public, prices seem mysterious; to insiders, they are engineered outcomes.

The Exoteric and the Esoteric

Finance operates on two levels. The exoteric level is public-facing: it teaches DCA, intrinsic value, and technical analysis to the masses, creating rituals of participation. The esoteric level is insider-only: it relies on shadow trades, market-making, and narrative manipulation. This mirrors religious structures—exoteric rituals for believers, esoteric secrets for priests. The public plays with symbols; the elite manipulates the architecture.

Rationality as Self-Governance

The essay’s central insight is simple but profound: You cannot be rational to what you cannot control. Retail investors cannot control the market, indices, or liquidity flows. The only domain of rationality available is the self. Through risk management—position sizing, discipline, emotional restraint—the investor asserts sovereignty over their own fate. This transforms investing from pseudo-science into philosophy: a practice of self-mastery in the face of chaos.

Conclusion

Postmodern finance reframes markets as theaters of faith rather than engines of rationality. Elites exercise rationality because they control flows, structures, and narratives. The masses provide liquidity by participating in rituals, believing in fundamentals, and trusting indices. Institutions act as faith managers, producing numbers and ratings that stabilize belief. Bitcoin introduces a new paradigm: an asset whose faith is coded into its very structure. Ultimately, the path for the mass investor is not to master the market but to master the self. Risk management, not price prediction, is the highest form of rationality available. In this way, finance becomes not economics but philosophy—an encounter between chaos, narrative, faith, and self-discipline.