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As Christmas approaches, there is one last cruel irony of 2008 for investors; in spite of collapsing commodity prices, Christmas has never been more expensive. This finding comes from the [...]

Hindsight Capital LLC had a great 2008. It has always been successful because it uses the strategy that year in and year out is better than any other: hindsight. But [...]

Some great investors' reputations have suffered a cruel reversion to the mean this year. Kirk Kerkorian, the nonagenarian investor whose big holdings included a range of casino companies and the [...]

This is the season for media outlets to nominate their men and women of the year. This year we also need a contest to name the year's biggest mistake. We [...]

In a year when we have all grown used to extreme numbers, this week was book-ended by two shocking figures. Only one seems shocking at first to those outside the [...]

Book Review This collection of essays displays its author's uncanny ability to pinpoint the sources of financial turmoil years in advance, writes John Authers James Grant's Mr Market Miscalculates may [...]

Stocks As the week dawned, many in international markets thought that they might have a respite until Christmas. With stocks having fallen so fast, there were even hopes of what [...]

The last time the US installed a new president at a time when its stock market had fallen more than 50 per cent, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had some famously calming [...]

South Korea's top financial regulator yesterday defended his decision to scuttle Korea Development Bank's attempt to acquire now-defunct Lehman Brothers, which changed the global financial landscape and aggravated the global [...]

Equity managers long ago had to put up with academic research that showed they did not do as well as a passive index. Now managers of commodity futures funds must [...]

As world stock markets plunged last month, investors were able to take heart from the latest words of Warren Buffett: he announced he was buying stocks. 'A simple rule dictates [...]

Arguments over who to blame for getting us into this mess are already getting tired. The blame is spread very wide and goes back a long way. But now we [...]

Yes, he could. Barack Obama's decisive victory in the US presidential election removed an element of uncertainty for the markets, and stoked hopes that he would nominate a Treasury secretary [...]

This year has seen two epic and intersecting narratives. All year, the slow-motion crash of the world's capital markets has played out alongside the spellbinding, and rancorous, battle for the [...]

Chaos theory holds that a butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo could cause a tornado in Texas. The analogy is relevant for investors. There is chaos in the markets, with [...]

Hedge funds are the Galapagos islands of the financial services industry. So at least says Andrew Lo, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who has pioneered the application of evolutionary [...]

The long-awaited second-order effects of the credit crisis are here; equities have crashed, as have all hopes that the world can avoid a recession of some severity. While the acute [...]

US stocks suffer worst weekly loss in history G7 pledges aggressive but broad response US stock prices suffered their worst weekly loss in history yesterday, prompting a pledge from global [...]

Equities crash by more than 20% Selling shows 'excessive despair' The crash in equity markets this week came as investors fled risky assets in panic. Co-ordinated rate cuts by leading [...]

'A day like today is not a day for, sort of, soundbites, really - we can leave those at home - but I feel the hand of history upon our [...]

Equities John Authers looks at a discouraging global picture October 31, Hallowe'en, looks as though it could become a doubly ominous date for world equities. It was on that date [...]

US financial stocks slumped to their lowest level since 1997 yesterday as the escalating global credit crisis forced the UK to announce the partial nationalisation of its banking system. Gordon [...]

There is a harmless parlour game called Consequences. It is great fun. People pass around a piece of paper, writing down the name of a man and a woman, where [...]

ECB signals possible first rate cut in 5 years Weak data and freeze in lending add to woes Growing fears of a global economic slowdown sent stock prices sliding yesterday [...]

First policy softening in five years possible Rising fears of a global economic slowdown sent stock prices sliding yesterday as the European Central Bank signalled that it could soon cut [...]

Writing anything about this financial crisis is nerve-racking. People may be reading how financial journalists wrote about this crisis decades from now, and things we now accept as unquestioned orthodoxy [...]

The Markets The lows set in equity markets last week should endure for a while, but investors are concerned that the risk of accidents remains high as details of the [...]

The Markets The lows set in equity markets last week should endure for a while, but investors are concerned that the risk of accidents remains high as details of the [...]

'I think therefore I am.' That was the one certainty the philosopher Descartes could find after he set himself a discipline of radical doubt - trying to doubt everything, so [...]

Arguments about styles and sectors seem a little beside the point when the market is convulsed the way it has been in the last week. But there are intriguing patterns [...]

Book Review Indexing is increasingly popular with investors and Rob Arnott's book has created a debate on the best strategy to follow, writes John Authers Rob Arnott and his colleagues [...]

THE LONG VIEW This column is called the Long View. It is meant to have a long time horizon and to have a broad scope. That is a problem. This [...]

John Authers THE LONG VIEW Navigating the market is about reconciling a series of dichotomies. At the heart of the drama of the last week, the worst for British stocks [...]

Last month, as world stock markets degenerated into panic, it was time to round up the usual suspects. US regulators announced a crackdown on short-sellers. It is hard not to [...]

The landmark $1.25bn settlement in 1998 between Swiss banks and Jewish activists brought the promise of recompense to those whose savings had disappeared during the second world war. So what [...]

The landmark $1.25bn settlement in 1998 between Swiss banks and Jewish activists brought the promise of recompense to those whose savings had disappeared during the second world war. So what [...]

It was Jeremy Grantham, one of the most respected sages in the world of fund management, who first described the problems gripping the credit market as a 'slow-motion train wreck'. [...]

John Authers THE LAST WORD These are lousy times for value managers. Once growth started to outperform value in the summer of 2006, it had stoked up its outperformance to [...]

The Olympics are following a 20-year cycle. As in 1968 and 1988, the Games are providing a grand coming-out party for a vast city in the emerging world. The parallels [...]

Biggest daily rise in eight years recorded US stocks soared yesterday as the dollar saw its biggest one-day jump against the euro in eight years and oil prices plunged. The [...]

Biggest daily rise in eight years recorded US stocks soared yesterday as the dollar saw its biggest one-day jump against the euro in eight years and strengthened against sterling, and [...]

Biggest daily rise in eight years recorded The US dollar enjoyed its biggest one-day jump against the euro in eight years yesterday, as the long-running tendency of the dollar to [...]

Cramer Day is upon us. This weekend marks the anniversary of former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer's outburst on CNBC that the Federal Reserve was 'asleep' and that there was [...]

Book Review Despite its flaws, Mohamed El-Erian's analysis offers valuable insights on a changing economic climate, writes John Authers Few people are as well positioned to understand markets as Mohamed [...]

John Authers THE LONG VIEW Investors in bank stocks have stared into the abyss. Have they touched bottom? Until two weeks ago, the answer was easy: 'No.' The reasons are [...]

Crunch-related losses smaller than expected Return to financials as results cap wild week Citigroup capped a wild week for US equity markets yesterday, unveiling $7.2bn of writedowns and a smaller-than-expected [...]

Some of history's greatest economic shifts are closely associated with politicians and big political swings. In Britain, 'Thatcherism' introduced monetarism, defeated inflation and ended an era of heavy government spending. [...]

News Analysis Financial markets have rarely seen anything like the last week, write Michael Mackenzie and John Authers It was one of the most remarkable weeks in the history of [...]

Financial Policy Many US economists, on the right and the left, are today able to say: 'I told you so.' Few developments in US financial policy over the past half [...]

What do we want of a fund manager? Naturally we want them to make us money. But how can we infer from history their chances of doing so in the [...]