Dubbed the Internet bubble, the dot com bubble burst of 2000 is one of the most significant stock market crashes in recent history. The growth and adoption of the internet drove speculation on internet-related stocks from 1995 to 2000, with the Nasdaq rising over five fold, before tumbling over 80% by the last quarter of […]

The ‘Black Monday’ crash of 1987 refers to the date of October 19th, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled over 22%. It was a loss that, to this day, remains the biggest ever single-day drop in stock market history. For context, during the infamous 1929 crash that preceded the Great Depression, the […]

Also known as the Great Crash, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 is widely regarded as the worst economic crisis that ever happened in the US. In September that year, stock prices started drifting lower, but the climax was on the Black Tuesday of October 29th, 1929, when over 16 million shares were traded, and […]

The panic of 1907 was a short-lived financial crisis that saw the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) tank over 50% off its previous year’s highs. An ambitious speculative bid to corner the lucrative copper market failed, triggering a collapse of two major brokerage firms. The ensuing panic saw runs made on New York banks and […]

The South Sea Bubble occurred in 1720, and it centred on the South Sea Company that was formed in 1711 as a public-private partnership to manage and consolidate British debt. The company earned exclusive rights to supply African slaves to the ‘South Seas’ region, which is now Central and South America. This deal promised to be very lucrative and money-spinning, attracting all rungs of society to seek a slice of the cake. By August 1720, share prices of the company hit highs of above £1,000, but just a month later, in September 1720, the bubble burst, and prices tumbled to lows of below £150. The stock prices never recovered above that level until the company was abolished much later in 1858. More than 300 years later, the South Sea Bubble remains a byword of financial crises, a symbol of crowd greed as well as insider trading. But what actually happened?

In the 17th century, the Dutch became obsessed with buying tulip bulbs. Prices of the then exotic and luxurious flower type skyrocketed to extraordinary levels, but in 1637, they came down tumbling, and the bubble officially popped. Also known as the ‘tulipmania’, it became the first-ever recorded asset price bubble, with the term now symbolic of the dangers of human greed and speculation. But was the tulipmania a classic case of an economic crisis or just a socio-economic phenomenon?

People look at the rich and powerful and sometimes feel that they’ve always been that way. What many don’t see are the struggles and failures endured in the early years, and sometimes even in the middle years, of these wealthy traders’ careers. It is understood that there are bumps in the road when you consider […]