In sports, a head fake is a type of

feint Feint, a French term that entered English via the discipline of swordsmanship and fencing, is a maneuver designed to distract or mislead. A feint is achieved by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, ...

in which someone moves the head to fake an intended change in direction and thereby deceive opponents. The term originated in sports, but it has become applied metaphorically in other senses. In

financial market A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial marke ...

s, a "head fake" refers to a time when the market appears to be moving in one direction, but ends up moving in the opposite direction. For example, the price of a stock may initially move up, and all indications are that it will continue to move up, but shortly afterward, it reverses direction and starts moving down. On September 18, 2007, in his "Last Lecture" at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

, entitled " Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", Randy Pausch referred extensively to "head fakes". He described as a "head fake", for example, the phenomenon of parents encouraging their children to play football. Parents tell their children to play sports not because they really want them to become football stars, he said, but to help them develop collaboration and socializing skills.

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Financial markets Sports terminology {{finance-stub

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