Imagine you are selling delicious ice cold kiwi juices at a market stall and you made up loads expecting hot weather and it is indeed 100 degrees in the shade and prices are soaring as everyone is thirsty and they are willing to pay higher and higher prices.
Infact, some people are even willing to pay 40 pence more per drink, then the stand right next door just so they don't have to wait in a queue in this heat for an extra two minutes. You shake your head in amazement.
But very slowly the shadows are slowly getting longer. The "edge" has just come off the heat. It's now almost tolerable. And you notice that slowly, people that want to buy are thinking rather than just opening their wallets. Some people have gone home and others are nicking a straw and sharing the drink among two rather than pay £4 for one each.
Now you have made up 500 drinks and you need to charge £2 to breakeven but all day you've been able to get £4 per drink and ideally that's what you would like to continue to get.
But you do a quick calculation and decide that with 500 to sell and only about 200 people hanging around you are going to have no alternative but to drop that price to encourage buyers. But if you drop yours towards the end of the day then so will the stand next door to compete. So you will have to cut again. So if you start trying to "force" buying rather than letting it come naturally then things could collapse pretty quick. And that means lost profit.
Then suddenly, over the radio comes the news that there are no more Kiwis left in the world! Incredibly, they are now extinct. Obviously kiwis, like any fruit, go bad eventually, so you are still going to have to offload them quickly but right now - WOAH - people are thronging - £4 is being paid like its 4 pence. The queue has doubled. It's quadrupled. It's quintupled.
Should you start charging £5. Maybe £6? Or should you just make a good business decision and sell all 500 drinks at the good markup you were getting this morning because the days not getting any younger and the fruits not getting any fresher...
OK, so its not an exact market analogy but you get my drift.
Seriously, I've been caught in this phenomenon many a time. Be wary of reacting to ALL NEWS.