What is it called when people wrongly anticipate something and their actions eventually make it happen? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate:
What word means “to speak something into existence”?

This is probably something that economists would quickly recognize. It often happens that people would wrongly speculate something; for example, a sudden rise in gold prices, and as a result of that speculation, the buyers will rush to buy gold in a bid to escape the anticipated rise in price whereas the sellers will hold it back looking forward to the price rise. The sudden demand for gold, on one hand, and the shortage of supply on the other, will eventually bring about the rise in its price.

I was recently reading about this phenomenon on some website and the author, stating that the trend applies to a variety of economic activities including foreign exchange, had called it something using a term which I now wish I had made note of.

Economics apart, I believe this is something that can happen anywhere where anticipation and speculation are involved. I request you to please share if you know what this phenomenon is called.


You could talk of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Not a single word, but the expression is very common.