Methodology

How these articles are put together, where the numbers come from, and what happens when we get something wrong.

What this site is

Plain Markets explains how markets work. Each article takes one narrow question, answers it in the opening paragraph, explains the mechanism, gives a concrete example, and then sets out the conditions under which the relationship described stops holding.

We do not recommend securities. There are no buy or sell calls here, no price targets, and no portfolio advice. Nothing on this site is investment advice.

Article structure

Every article follows the same five sections, in the same order: the answer, the mechanism, a simple example, when this relationship breaks, and what to watch. The fourth section is mandatory. Market relationships are tendencies measured over a chosen window, not rules, and an explanation that omits the exceptions is misleading even when every sentence in it is true.

Data sources

Articles published so far are explanatory and historical, and do not depend on live market data. Where a specific figure appears, it is recorded as a dated source card alongside the article rather than typed into the prose from memory.

Figures used purely to illustrate arithmetic are rounded, labelled as such in the text, and are not market quotes. They should not be read as data.

Source cards for the current articles are placeholders entered by hand while the site is being built, and are marked as such in the article's stored record. Before any market dashboard is published here, each data series will be checked individually for its licence terms. Being available from a government or public catalogue does not by itself make a series free to republish.

Use of AI

AI tools are used in drafting. They are not given free rein over numbers: any figure that appears in an article has to match a stored source card, and text containing a figure that does not match is removed rather than patched. A human reviews and approves every article before it is published.

Language about relationships

We avoid unconditional claims of the form "when A rises, B falls". Where a historical tendency exists, it is described as a tendency — "tends to", "historically", "in most periods" — and the article states what would have to be true for it to fail.

Corrections policy

Published articles are kept under version control and are not silently rewritten.

• Fixing a typo or tightening wording does not change the article's version and is not announced.
• Adding new information raises the article's version and the page is marked as updated.
• If an explanation turns out to be wrong, a correction note is added to the article saying what was wrong and when it was fixed. Any short video made from that article is then reviewed by a person. Videos are never automatically withdrawn or regenerated.

Who writes this

Articles on Plain Markets are written by Ryan Kim, Financial Research Lab, ARIDRI, INC.

Individual articles carry the author's name only. The full affiliation is stated here and in the site footer.

Contact

Corrections and questions are welcome. Contact details will be published here once the site is out of its initial build.