It's not _all_ smoke and mirrors, but only on the low level of P/E ratios. E.g. companies paying dividends -- if company has no money, it won't pay dividends,

It's not _all_ smoke and mirrors, but only on the low level of P/E ratios. E.g. companies paying dividends -- if company has no money, it won't pay dividends, so the stock goes down. But if investors see dividends as a good income source, then the stock price goes up. But that only works with dividend-paying stocks, obviously.