Hi Adam,

Uh, well, maybe. I'm not sure I've fallen into any trap here. The point of my post was to create charts. It could have been frog leaps in the spring vs. the autumn. All of the charts in the above post are completely random, just to create the appearance of two data series graphed relative to one another; then an r-squared is calculated. They happen to be labeled 10-year Treasury and Stock Market Close - but those are inventions.

The point of the post is not the superiority of r-squared or even how to apply it. The point of the post is that charts deceive and folks who use them should do a deeper dive into the data. Hence, the subtitle, "Seeing is not believing." Most often when charts are posted in the investment biz there is no accompanying information - just some analyst's (usually sell-side) opinion as to the next appropriate action based on the "appearance" of causality. I used r-squared in the above post only to demonstrate that what "looks like" something of significance is a fiction.

With smiles,

Jason