Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles P. Kindleberger and Robert Z. Aliber

By Lawrence

Summary: Must read for those who are interested in understanding market crashes and macro trading. Not as useful for those whose trading or investing time horizon within a week or so. Overall a good book to keep as a reference.


Book Information

Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises
Written by Charles P. Kindleberger and Robert Z. Aliber

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Review

The edition I am reviewing here is the sixth edition.

This book is the reference of, if not all, most of the known abnormal market behaviours documented in history. If you are interested in learning at least something about these events, this book is the best reference on the subject.

I do not agree to many of the opinions offered by the authors but that does not take away its usefulness. The book can be pretty dry at times making you feel like going back to college reading a brick all over again. I can see how this can become a problem for many of the younger readers who may not have the patience.

My suggestion is to read the events that interest you most and pick the chapters you find interesting to read first. Once you are more familiar with the subject the rest of the book will be much easier to digest.

I actually have at least 1 more edition of the book on hand and I can see that the original content has been modified to become much more “political correct”. I do not see why it is necessary. Maybe the authors do not want to offend that many people?

As a summary, it is a must read if you are interested in macro understanding of market crashes, etc. If your trading horizon does not span more than a few days, it is not something that will help you with your trading performance.

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