Symmetry and financial markets

¹ CNRS, Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, Maison des Sciences Economiques - 106-112 Boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75647 Paris Cedex 13, France
² Department of Psychology, Warsaw University - Warsaw, Poland
³ Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University - 777 Glades rd, FL 33431, USA

^(a) jorgen.vitting.andersen@univ.paris1.fr (corresponding author)

Received: 23 February 2022
Accepted: 4 July 2022

Abstract

It is hard to overstate the importance that the concept of symmetry has had in every field of physics, a fact alluded to by the Nobel Prize winner P. W. Anderson, who once wrote that “physics is the study of symmetry”. Whereas the idea of symmetry is widely used in science in general, very few (if not almost no) applications have found its way into the field of finance. Still, the phenomenon appears relevant in terms of for example the symmetry of strategies that can happen in the decision making to buy or sell financial shares. Game theory is therefore one obvious avenue where to look for symmetry but, as will be argued, also technical analysis and long-term economic growth could be phenomena which show the hallmark of a symmetry.