Jeremy attributes the taper tantrum to the existence of highly leveraged quantitative easing optimists--in other words, individuals who expected the Federal Reserve to continue to accumulate assets much longer than the median expectation and who put little weight on  8  See Stein (2014). For a recent example, see Shin (2017).
Shin suggests using caution when extrapolating “market” expectations from movements in asset prices, pointing to examples where technical factors likely complicate the interaction of market participants’ actions relative to their expectations. 9  -5the median market expectation. Once Chairman Bernanke affirmed the median expectation, these optimists had to quickly unwind their trades, with consequent sharp movements in asset prices. Where does that leave us?