Why Stock Markets Crash : Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems. Professor Didier Sornette of UCLA has some very interesting things to say about stock markets. In his book, he explains how his "theory of cooperative herding and imitation [...] has detected the existence of a clear signature of herding in the decay of the US S&P500 index since August 2000 with high statistical significance, in the form of strong log-periodic components." Although his timing has been just a bit early, the theory, the predictions to date and the pictures are all pretty uncanny. This is easily the most interesting book on the stock market I have ever read and provides interesting and believable hypotheses about things I never imagined could have rigorous explanations. For an overview, here is an interview with the author.
posted by muppetboy on May 14, 2004 - 19 comments

A speculative bubble is created when objectivity, reasoning, and valuation give way to greed and an insatiable desire for profits. On this date in history... October 29, 1929: The date of the stock market crash that marked the start of the Great Depression in the United States. Could it have been averted by the reading of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay?
posted by puddsharp on Oct 29, 2002 - 21 comments

Someone we trust says something reassuring. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, arguably the most powerful man in the world, blames "infectious greed" for the recent panic-like tail-spins on Wall Street, but says that the economy is on the way to recovery. One comment held that Greenspan was finally able to let out how he feels about what's going on, without shrouding his opinion in economic jibber-jabber.

"For once he really spoke his mind. He usually tends to obfuscate things quite a bit."

But really, how many of you expected Greenspan to say anything other than "the fundamentals are in place for a return to sustained healthy growth"? Does Greenspan actually feel this way? Could it be that he is actually majorly pessimistic, but is using his soothing sweet-song voice and obvious clout and earned respect to somehow buck recent trends? Bush's speech didn't do much for our faltering economy, but will Greenspan's? Can one man's mere words possibly change the course of history? Well?
posted by Hammerikaner on Jul 16, 2002 - 27 comments

ORIGINAL SIN: How prices of initial public offerings were manipulated by Goldman Sachs through the illegal practice of "Laddering" Isn't that enronic!
posted by srboisvert on May 13, 2002 - 10 comments

Will the rich be nicer to the poor? The way the stockmarket keeps plunging the rich might be asking the rest of us how to survive.
posted by jbou on Sep 21, 2001 - 22 comments

Aaargh! They're considering adding AOL to the Dow!
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jan 1, 2001 - 9 comments

An Australian Man who sent millions of e-mails around the world falsely stating shares in an American company would rise 900 per cent was today sentenced to two years in jail. The charges filed are believed among the first of their type made against anyone in the world. Mr Hourmouzis had pleaded guilty to two charges of making a false statement on the Internet.
posted by murray_kester on Oct 29, 2000 - 4 comments

Day trading and looking at pictures of beautiful women. Life just doesn't get any better than this.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jul 1, 2000 - 4 comments

'Hey I heard you huffing and puffing on that exercise bike, are you doing hills on it?' 'Nope, it was just doing some daytrading, my portfolio was taking a dive.' (conversation coming to a gym near you)
posted by mathowie on Sep 15, 1999 - 0 comments