Classification of Price Target Revision

The sell target was set. Then it was revised. The revised target was then described as the target.

This is not unusual. Targets change. The relevant detail is that the revised number was introduced to a conversation as the original plan, and the person introducing it was not attempting to deceive anyone. They had genuinely reorganized their own account of events.

This is the opening condition of price target revision: the revision is real, the reclassification of the revision as the original plan is also real, and neither fact is in conflict for the person holding both.

The first consequence was conversational. Someone asked what the plan had been. The answer given was the current target. The answer was accurate by the revised standard. It created a small misleading impression. The impression did not seem to matter because the market was doing something more urgent at that moment.

After the second revision, other behaviors adjusted. Checking the price became more frequent, which is the opposite of what patience at current valuations would recommend. Each check produced a reading. Each reading was assessed against the current target, which had been set to feel reachable from the current price. The check confirmed the target was reachable. This was a comfort.

Uncertainty may be converted into certainty by checking the same number again under identical conditions.

The mechanism of this comfort is worth describing precisely. The check cannot change the price. The check cannot change the likelihood of the price reaching the target. The check changes only the mood of the person checking. In 2022, this mood change was documented at significant scale. Entire product categories were built around delivering it efficiently.

After enough revisions, the original target becomes genuinely unknown to the person who set it. The revised number was the original number, which had also been revised from a different original number, which had been set in a different market condition that no longer applied.

This is called staying flexible.

No other word was in use.