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Financial articles
Market history, behavioral finance, how famous investors think and what really moves stock prices.
Market history
- History of stock market crashes: every major US drawdown compared The major US stock market crashes and bear markets from 1929 to 2022 in one table: peak, trough, decline and time to recover, with what caused each and what they share.
- The crash of 1929: causes, the 1929–32 decline and lessons What happened in the October 1929 crash, how the Dow fell 89% by July 1932, why policy made it worse, and the market rules the 1930s left behind.
- Black Monday 1987: the 22.6% crash and why circuit breakers exist What happened on October 19, 1987, how portfolio insurance and broken market links deepened the fall, how the Fed responded, and how circuit breakers followed.
- The dot-com bubble: the 1995–2002 boom and the 78% Nasdaq fall How the internet stock boom of 1995–2000 built up, why the Nasdaq fell 78% by October 2002, what QQQ’s real monthly history shows, and the lessons for valuation.
- The 2008 financial crisis: housing, Lehman, TARP and the 57% fall How the US housing bust became a global banking crisis, what happened around Lehman’s failure, how TARP and the Fed responded, and how the S&P 500 fell 57% in 2007–09.
- The 2010 Flash Crash: what happened on May 6 and what changed How US stocks fell about 9% and rebounded within minutes on May 6, 2010, what the SEC–CFTC staff report found, and how LULD bands and new circuit breakers followed.
- The COVID crash of 2020: the fastest bear market and recovery How the S&P 500 fell 34% in 33 days in February–March 2020, the four circuit-breaker halts, the Fed and CARES Act response, and the record set by August 2020.
- Meme stock mania of 2021: GameStop, AMC and the SEC report What drove GameStop and AMC in January 2021, why brokers restricted buying, what the SEC staff report of October 2021 found, and what changed after.
- The 2022 bear market: inflation, Fed hikes and falling bonds Why stocks and bonds fell together in 2022, how the Fed’s fastest hikes in decades drove a 25% S&P 500 decline, and what SPY, QQQ and TLT data show.
Behavioral finance
- Cognitive biases in investing: what the research actually shows A research-based guide to the biases that cost investors money: prospect theory, the disposition effect, overconfidence, herding and anchoring.
- Loss aversion: why losses hurt twice as much as gains please What loss aversion is, how researchers measure it, how it drives myopic investing and the break-even trap, what the latest evidence says and how investors work around it.
- Herd behavior and FOMO in investing: cascades, manias and panics Why investors follow the crowd into manias and out in panics: informational cascades, attention-driven buying, the 2021 GME episode and the cost of missing the best days.
- Overconfidence and overtrading: the research on trading too much How overconfidence shows up in investors, what Barber and Odean and day-trading studies found about frequent trading, and how to measure your turnover.
- Anchoring and confirmation bias: how investors fool themselves How purchase prices, past highs and targets become anchors, how confirmation bias filters what investors read, the market evidence and ways to counter both.
Great investors
- Warren Buffett’s investing approach: moats, owners and patience How Warren Buffett invests: Graham roots, circle of competence, durable moats, owner earnings and insurance float, with BRK-B against SPY on real data since 1996.
- Benjamin Graham and value investing: margin of safety explained Benjamin Graham’s value-investing ideas: Mr. Market, the margin of safety, defensive and enterprising investors, net-nets, his seven tests and how they hold up.
- Peter Lynch’s investing approach: know what you own, and why How Peter Lynch ran Fidelity Magellan: researching what you know, his six stock categories, the PEG ratio, the two-minute story and what his rules leave out.
- John Bogle and index investing: the cost matters hypothesis How John Bogle founded Vanguard and the first retail index fund, why he argued costs decide returns, the arithmetic behind it and what his critics and successors say.
Insights
- What moves stock prices? Earnings, rates, flows, news and sentiment The forces that set a stock price, from earnings and expectations to interest rates, fund flows, news and mood, with real 2025–2026 examples from Finabase data.
- How earnings season works: calendar, estimates and the reaction How the quarterly US earnings season is organized: filing deadlines, pre-announcements, consensus estimates, whisper numbers, the call and the reaction.
- How interest rates affect stocks: discount rates and equity duration Why higher interest rates tend to lower stock prices, why growth stocks feel it most, and what yields, QQQ, SPY and value stocks did from 2021 to 2026.
- Market concentration: what mega caps mean for S&P 500 investors How much of the S&P 500 its ten largest companies now make up, why cap-weighted indexes concentrate, and what it means for an index fund’s risk and diversification.
- Why most active funds underperform: costs, arithmetic and luck Why most actively managed stock funds trail their index over time: Sharpe’s arithmetic, costs, skewed stock returns, survivorship and luck.
- Calendar effects in stocks: January, sell in May and day of week What the January effect, sell in May, turn-of-the-month and day-of-week patterns claim, and what 33 years of SPY data show when tested honestly.
- How sectors behave across the business cycle: cyclicals vs. defensives How cyclical and defensive sectors tend to behave through expansions and recessions, the textbook rotation model, and what 2021–2026 sector ETF data actually show.
Educational content, not investment advice. Finabase Learn explains how markets and tools work. It does not recommend any security or strategy, and examples are for illustration only. Investing involves risk, including the loss of principal. Rules and figures are for the United States unless stated and can change — check the cited source before you act.