Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the
> villagers that he would buy monkeys for £10 each. The villagers, seeing
> that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started
> catching them.
>
> The man bought thousands at £10 and as supply started to diminish, the
> villagers stopped their effort. He then announced that he would now buy
> at £20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started
> catching monkeys again.
>
> Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to
> their farms. The offer increased to £25 each and the supply of monkeys
> became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone > catch it! >
> The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at £50. However, since
> he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy
> on behalf of him.
>
> In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, ?Look at
> all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will
> sell them to you at £35 and when the man returns from the city, you can
> sell them to him for £50 each.?
>
> The villagers hurried round with their savings and bought all the > monkeys. >
> Then they never saw the man nor his assistant again, only bloody monkeys > everywhere!
>
> Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works. >
>
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almost spot on... except its missing the final act of the cycle...
Assistant 2 turns up and claims nothing to do with buyer or assistant 1, and claims he was bitten by same scam and curses buyer and asst. 1. Assistant 2 having gained confidence of villagers then offers to buy up all the monkeys for 20p each. Which the villagers jump at.
Assistant 2 takes all monkeys 100 miles down the road, releases them... and the cycle begins again....