MarketMayhem
When Greed Meets Gravity — History’s Greatest Market Disasters
A Complete Traders Edge Series • Podcast + YouTube
Four Centuries of Human Greed, Panic, and Ruin
The names change. The centuries change. The instruments change. But the pattern never does. A new opportunity emerges. Smart money moves in early. The crowd follows. Prices detach from reality. Leverage multiplies. Then something small breaks, and the whole edifice collapses — faster than anyone believed possible.
Market Mayhem is a deep-dive into eighteen of history’s greatest financial disasters, from the Dutch tulip fields of 1637 to the FTX collapse of 2022. Each episode dissects not just what happened, but why — the psychology, the leverage, the denial, the panic.
Every disaster maps directly to the Mind · Method · Money framework. The bubble that destroyed a generation of Dutch merchants is the same psychology lurking in your trading account today.
The Complete Series
Ordered chronologically · 18 episodes · 1637 to 2022
Tulip Mania
The world’s first recorded speculative bubble. At its peak, a single Semper Augustus tulip bulb cost more than an Amsterdam canal house.
John Law’s Mississippi Bubble
A Scottish gambler handed control of the entire French economy. He invented paper money, turned servants into millionaires.
South Sea Bubble
Isaac Newton invested, withdrew with a profit, reinvested at the peak, and lost £20,000. No one is immune.
Railway Mania
Parliament approved hundreds of railway schemes as shares soared. When reality caught up, fortunes evaporated and many lines were never built.
Black Tuesday
$14 billion destroyed in a single day. Jesse Livermore made $100 million shorting it — then lost everything.
Silver Thursday
Two Texas oil billionaires cornered one-third of the world’s silver. COMEX changed the rules mid-game.
Souk Al-Manakh Crash
An unregulated exchange in a Kuwait City parking garage. When one cheque bounced, $94 billion in IOUs collapsed.
Latin American Debt Crisis
When Volcker raised US rates to 20%, petrodollar loans across Latin America became unpayable.
Black Monday
The Dow fell 22.6% in a single day. Portfolio insurance algorithms became the mechanism of destruction.
Japan’s Lost Decades
The Nikkei peaked at 38,915 in December 1989. It took 34 years to reclaim that level.
The Mexican Peso Crisis
A December devaluation became a rout. The peso lost roughly half its value in weeks, and the Tequila Effect spread across emerging markets.
Asian Financial Crisis
Thailand’s baht broke under speculative attack in July 1997. The contagion spread across the region within months.
The Dot-Com Bubble
$5 trillion evaporated. Pets.com raised $82M, spent $300M, and was dead in 268 days.
The Corralito
Argentina froze withdrawals, broke the dollar peg, and defaulted on roughly $100 billion — the largest sovereign default in history at the time.
The Global Financial Crisis
CDOs of CDOs. AAA ratings on subprime garbage. $11 trillion destroyed in two years.
The Flash Crash
The Dow fell 998 points in minutes. A trillion dollars vanished in 36 minutes, then most of it came back.
The Nickel Squeeze
Nickel spiked 250% in two days. The LME cancelled billions in legitimate trades.
The Crypto Bubble & FTX
Sam Bankman-Fried ran a $32 billion exchange on customer deposits. FTX imploded in 72 hours.
Never Be Caught on the Wrong Side of History Again
Every disaster traces back to Mind, Method, or Money — the three pillars of the Complete Trader’s Edge framework.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Market Mayhem
Market Mayhem is a financial history podcast and YouTube series covering eighteen of history’s greatest market crashes. Designed for active traders and investors.
Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and the YouTube channel.
New episodes release weekly. The full 18-episode season covers events from 1637 to 2022.
Episodes are ordered chronologically for maximum impact. Every episode is self-contained. Starting from Episode 1 is the best experience.
The core framework of The Complete Trader’s Edge: Mind (psychology), Method (strategy), and Money (risk management). Take the free assessment at completetradersedge.com/assessment.
Yes. A companion series to The Complete Trader’s Edge by Louw van Riet.
Goes deeper into psychology and direct parallels to modern markets. Every episode ends with actionable lessons.
Follow on Spotify, subscribe on YouTube, or join the newsletter.
Ready to Build an Edge That Survives Any Market?
Market Mayhem shows you what happens when the framework fails. The Complete Trader’s Edge shows you how to build one that doesn’t.
The Complete Trader's Edge
The full Mind · Method · Money framework. 70 chapters.
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Market Mayhem
400 years of bubbles, crashes, and the pattern that keeps repeating.
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