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Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation (平装)
by Edward Chancellor
| Category:
Financial Speculation, Financial risk, Risk management, Wall Street |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An outstanding overview of the history of speculation, and a reminder on how we easily forget the lessons of history. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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Charles P. Kindleberger (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-29 00:00>
Edward Chancellor has combined his considerable talents as historian and banker to produce a riveting book. Here is a bonus for the banker, broker, investor, and idle Wall Street onlooker. |
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Rolf Dobelli (MSL quote), Switzerland
<2007-05-30 00:00>
This is a thoroughly engaging book about the world of financial speculation. Edward Chancellor discusses the origins of financial markets from the time of the Roman Empire through the modern Internet bubble. The book offers great insights about stock exchanges, outbreaks of speculation mania, and the fraud and greed that accompany any human endeavor. He presents in-depth reviews of many well-known "speculative manias" and several of the lesser-known ones. We at getAbstract recommend this book to anyone who wants a thoughtful treatment of a subject that touches all our lives. |
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Andrew Desmond (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-30 00:00>
Speculation is nothing new to humankind. Given that humans naturally seek more, then speculation is a normal part of that process. Put simply, speculation has always been with us and always will be with us.
Edward Chancellor's work, which is sub-titled "A History of Financial Speculation", covers history from the time of Tulipomania in 17th century Holland to the collapse of the modern Japanese economic bubble and the trade in junk bonds in America. If the book were to be revised, I am sure that Chancellor could readily cover the bursting of the dot com bubble and the ongoing travails of Japan.
In essence, "Devil Take the Hindmost" is a history of crowd madness. That is, an otherwise rational individual will often behave in a different manner when guided by a group. Such an individual may load up on dot com companies even though the price earnings ratios are screaming sell simply because others a buying and the market is trending upwards. However, as with all bubbles, there will be a bust. Bubbles come and go. When someone claims that "this time it's different", alarm bells should start to ring. The individual who can see reason in the crowd is the one who will avoid the inevitable slump.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in financial history. My only criticism is that Chancellor seems to think that speculation can sometimes be contained. This is not the case. Speculation lies at the heart of our modern economy. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-30 00:00>
I enjoyed this book very much. Chancellor was able to shine some new light on many well discussed topics. The book is well written & researched, the footnotes alone would make for an interesting read. Full of trivia, factoids & other amusing mishaps. For those interested in general finacial history, speculation included, look at Charles Geisst's book, "Wall Street: A History". Timely, insightful & entertaining. |
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D. Ortman (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-30 00:00>
This book is one of the most complete and concise books written on the matter of financial speculation that I have found to date. It covers most of the major periods of extensive financial speculation; including the Japanese market of the 1980's, the crash of 1929, and the South Seas debacle.
It certainly offeres a solid historical base upon which to view today's seemingly maniacly environment; one in which the Nasdaq sports an average P/E ratio of 175 and companies that have never made a penny in profits boast multi-billion dollar market caps. |
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Terence C. Burnham (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-30 00:00>
Devil Take the Hindmost contains information essential to every person. Furthermore, Edward Chancellor has written a book which is readable by anyone. He has made the topic of financial manias accessible and fun without sacrificing even an ounce of accuracy. The result is a book of amazingly good value - in just a few entertaining hours, you will learn something that will make your life better. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-30 00:00>
This is not just a history of financial speculation. This is really a history of mankind, of greed, of all the evil that we have repeated again and again through history. The author finished writing this book in Dec 98. Theoretically, if more people had known and read this book, much fewer would got "drown" in the internet bubble. However, when the Greater Fool theory was in full throttle, as prescribed by this book, that made no difference.
Basically this book had covered all the financial catastrophes of the past 5 centuries: Tulipomania, South Sea Bubble, Fool's Gold, Railway mania, Great Depression, Japanese Bubble Economy blah blah blah. You name it. The most valuable thing being that the author had not just given an exhaustive account of what happened, but some reasoning why things repeated themselves, and how. Say, the government officials were corrupted, there came a so called technology innovation or a new market (the terms "New Era/Never coming back of the business cycle" were also there in 1929), the Greater Fool Theory in full gear, all the simple things you can tell from hindsight.
As a CFA charterholder, I strongly recommend AIMR to put this book into the required reading list to warn its members of the limitation of the financial techniques/theories/calculations we try to preach. Anyway, a must read for anyone, especially serious players! |
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Peter Herzog (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-30 00:00>
Reading this book would give anyone a good grasp on the history of speculation. It was actually refreshing to see that the 90's speculative bubble was part of a long history of irrational forecasting. The set up of the book is also fantastic. Each chapter is set up as a historical case study. Going from the Danish tulip bulb market to the collapse of the modern Japanese economy. Although it is impossible for any writer not to be bias in his or her interpretation of history, Chancellor does one of the best jobs I have seen at giving just the facts. I would recommend this to anyone curious on the roots of speculation and how it has affected societies in the past. |
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1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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