2.3. Isospin of Market Charge and Residual Taste
Just as in chess, market behavior always leaves a residual flavor. Here, it is necessary to briefly review the concept of market charge introduced earlier. Since Marshall's "Principles of Economics" (1890), microeconomics has been able to articulate around three basic concepts: price, supply, and demand. A demand consists of two components, namely buying intentions and desired goods. We have:
Proposition 8: Let the market price be denoted as . Demand is composed of purchasing intentions and target goods. Purchasing intentions carry a negative market charge, denoted as , and are fully sensitive to price . Similarly, supply consists of sales intentions and target goods. Sales intentions carry a positive market charge, denoted as , and are likewise fully sensitive to price .
In market dynamics, positive and negative market charges are akin to positive and negative electric charges. A positron is the antiparticle of an electron. Assuming there is a price and a market, buying low and selling high is both economically rational and a natural inclination of market participants. Because buying and selling are always sensitive to price, whether to buy or not, to sell or not, market participants exhibit a hesitation phenomenon, referred to as spin. Spin hesitation is an intrinsic characteristic of market participants.
Engaging in buying and selling, discussing business, both parties have intentions to buy or sell, with shared goods goals. Based on individual buying and selling capabilities and market awareness, to facilitate market behavior, the bottom line is the negotiation of prices. Both buyers and sellers have the opportunity to trade, but not the obligation. Whether it's opening prices, inquiries, or negotiations, market participants have the right to hesitate, which is a fundamental principle of ordinary rationality.
In modern markets, in civilized society, it's common to buy rice and vegetables at supermarkets, or clothes, appliances, and daily necessities at shopping malls, as well as houses, cars, and various tickets like plane tickets, high-speed rail tickets, ballet tickets, or symphony concert tickets, all clearly priced. Payments can be made in cash, by card, or via transfer, with goods exchanged for money, accounts recognized and settled, and then both parties move on. Whatever psychological hesitation, cognitive thinking, reasoning, or decision-making occurred has already become the past. Money becomes a sunk cost. Traditional economics teaches us that economics is the study of efficiency, so forget about sunk costs. Assuming resources are scarce, economics itself seems only to study how to efficiently allocate scarce resources. Neoclassical economics warns us to follow the money and look forward. The so-called marginal analysis refers to whether investing an additional unit of scarce resources yields marginal income and marginal opportunity costs, each geometrically. If the former exceeds the latter, it is considered efficient, otherwise, it is considered inefficient. Here, "investing more" certainly looks forward. In terms of efficiency concepts alone, the corresponding mathematical concept is a derivative, and the corresponding physical concept is velocity.
However, from the perspective of economic psychology, do ordinary people completely refrain from contemplating after making a purchase? Did they get their money's worth? Today, if they happen upon a store promotion offering discounts (such as 30%, 50%, or even 70%), they might feel they made a good deal, experiencing some satisfaction, and may consider returning next time. Or, if they hear another store is selling the same item cheaper, they might feel they made a bad deal here and think not to return to this store next time. These are all remnants of market behavior. Although termed remnants, whether pondered deeply or lightly, they all involve mental effort and inevitably consume energy. Below, we will introduce how this consumer residue (likewise, supply residue) can be appropriately characterized by neutrinos from particle physics.
Economic externalities often play a significant role in creating market residue. For example, when the central bank adjusts interest rates, it has financial policy effects and even fiscal policy effects, impacting market prices. Persistent rate hikes can cause inflation, which in turn can lead to consumer dissatisfaction. This is a type of market residue, superficially seen as price residue, but deeper, it reflects policy residue.
Today, going out to refuel the car, after refueling, one can't help but sigh: gasoline prices have recently risen by nearly 30%. Maybe it's better to take public transportation from now on. This is demand-side consumer residue. Managing a farm, with intense competition, the fruits produced at home are increasingly difficult to sell at a good price. One can't help but think about switching to other productions. This is supply-side sales residue.
Weak interactions can change the flavor charge of quarks, causing a neutron to decay into a proton, i.e., ,
:
. In fact, this only tells half of the story. The complete story is formulated by the following interaction formula,
where the symbols denote electrons and electron neutrinos. Under weak interactions, electrons and electron neutrinos form another kind of isospin, denoted as
.
Neutrinos in physics and market residue in economics are remarkably similar. Firstly, both have very low energy, akin to residual energy. Therefore, neutrinos are called physical residues. Furthermore, market residue naturally pertains to buying and selling residue. Neutrinos are denoted as , and their footnote explains the close relationship between neutrinos and electrons. Additionally, neutrinos may or may not have mass, a topic still under debate in physics. As for market residue consequences, economics currently cannot confirm or deny them. Thus, both share a similar status in their respective fields. From this, we have:
Proposition 9
In the dynamics of economic externalities, market residue is characterized by neutrinos, denoted as , where e represents market charge. Similar to the earlier discussion on the isospin of electrons and electron neutrinos, we have,
Proposition 10
Under the influence of economic externalities, market charge and market residue form an isospin, still denoted as .
Neutrinos possess some unique properties. In gauge field theory, conventional mass concepts refer to Dirac mass, whereas neutrino mass refers to Majorana mass [
5]. Moreover, neutrinos are their own antiparticles. These characteristics provide speculative reference space for further research into market residue.