Rating: 
Summary: It should be a required reading for everyone, I mean it
Review: 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 ba ba ba. 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 Level III candidate (I might become a charterholder this August, ha ha), I strongly recommend AIMR to put this book into the required list of reading 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!
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT Book
Review: This is one of the best books on financial markets that I have ever read. It is well written, thoroughly researched, erudite, and very entertaining.
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