A sucker's rally needs suckers

Sucker's rally. It's not a phrase that is often used in Indian investing circles, but the phenomenon is common enough. The meaning should also be obvious but let's define it to be sure. A sucker's rally is a short-lived and unjustified increase in the value of a stock or the entire market. This brief uptick often lures uninformed investors. These investors are the 'suckers,' who will face losses when the brief illusion ends. In recent months there has been this bubbling of hope around the world that digital businesses that earlier looked to be perennial loss-makers may be able to profit at some point. Mostly, this hope has been triggered by the buildup of the first quarterly profit that Uber has turned in. This, along with an apparent improvement in the basic numbers of some digital businesses, has led to a rally in some of these stocks. It's a curiou