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 · New episodes drop weekly
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 Monday
The Dow fell 22.6% in a single day. Portfolio insurance algorithms became the mechanism of destruction.
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.
Asian Financial Crisis
Thailand’s baht collapsed under speculative attack in July 1997.
The Dotcom Crash
$5 trillion evaporated. Pets.com: $82M raised, $300M spent, dead in 268 days.
The Global Financial Crisis
CDOs of CDOs. AAA ratings on subprime garbage. $11 trillion destroyed in two years.
The Eurozone Crisis
Greece revealed its debts were twice what reported. A currency union met its first existential test.
China’s Market Crash
Chinese retail investors borrowed heavily to chase a government-endorsed bull market. $5 trillion wiped out.
COVID Crash & Recovery
The S&P 500 fell 34% in 33 days. Then the Fed printed $3 trillion.
The Crypto Winter
Sam Bankman-Fried ran a $32 billion exchange on customer deposits. FTX imploded in 72 hours.
The 2022 Rate Shock
The most aggressive Fed tightening since Volcker. Bonds, stocks, crypto all crashed simultaneously.
The Nickel Squeeze
Nickel spiked 250% in two days. The LME cancelled billions in legitimate trades.
The Flash Crash
The Dow fell 998 points in minutes. A trillion dollars vanished in 36 minutes.
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.