Volatility in the finacial markets

There is no doubt that financial markets are the hallmark of the western economies or the core of the market economies. In fact, the phenomenon is global and even centralized economies like China feature financial markets. Started initially to facilitate stock trading, today they are extremely complex institutions and the range of financial instruments available for transactions is simply staggering. And, of course, new types of instruments appear every day.
It is obvious that they have an important role for the proper functioning of the market economy; they allow transferring financial resources from where they surplus to where they are needed; they facilitate diverting and dispersing risks associated with any economic endeavor; they allow hedging against risks collateral to the core activity of various companies. These are, of course, just a few of the financial markets beneficial purposes. There are a countless number of others, pure speculative purposes being an important share of them. Speculating on any financial market, with any financial instrument, is not bad in itself. Its part of the game and it helps creating opportunities where they would not otherwise be.
What is worrisome is that the whole system, with the complex interaction between geographically distinct financial markets, seems to have a life of its own. Normally, trends in financial markets should be correlated with the core economic activity, whether preceding or following it, but correlated in same way and to same extent. It is, however, obvious that an important part of the financial markets variation is induced by some other hard to specify and even harder to quantify, mainly psychological reasons. This points out to the fact the financial system is increasingly independent, with its own life and own moods. We should perhaps ponder very carefully if this increased autonomy is always beneficial or it can, sometimes, be damaging to an otherwise healthy economy.