In 1996, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan coined the term irrational exuberance to describe what he felt was unjustified speculation and interest in the stock market. Unfortunately, just yesterday we had an example of an equal and opposite reaction which makes me question the wisdom and perhaps the sanity of equity market investors. To wit, the big economic news released on Friday was that GDP in the United States grew by 5.8% in the first quarter of 2002! So what happened to the Dow Jones, NASDAQ and Standard & Poor's 500 Index? It went down the toilet, that's what. I personally hate the fact that my portfolio is taking a bath, due to this irrational pessimism.