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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: Stock market investors are getting too close to the sun. My comments: This means investors are taking too much risk buying high-flying shares – and in doing so, may get burned. Get burned, that is, like Icarus, the Greek legend. In Greek mythology, you see, Icarus flew too close to the sun and lost his wings in consequence. Well, he lost his wings because they were made with feathers and wax. Well, the gist of this well-known story is as follows: In order to enhance the powers of Icarus, his father builds Icarus a pair of large wings made from bird feathers stuck together with wax. This enables Icarus to fly high, far and wide. However, Icarus is warned against flying too high – or too low, for that matter. If he flies too high, whereby getting too close to the sun, the wax linking the feathers may melt; on the other hand, if he flies too low, whereby getting too close to the sea, the dampness and vapor from the sea will wet his wings and make them too heavy to lift. The upshot? Icarus eventually grows complacent and reckless on the strength of his new-found powers and does fly too close to the sun and does lose his wings. In the end, he falls into the sea where he drowns. In our example, we can safely infer that the said stock market investors are getting giddy after some considerable initial gains and are now buying like crazy and in consequence pushing share prices into frightfully exorbitant heights. | 
