Dot-Com Bubble Documentary

The evolution of the Internet and emergence of online businesses brought with them a phenomenon typical of new industries and technologies - a stock market bubble. Indeed the dot-com bubble is one of the largest stock market bubbles of recent history (with the subsequent crash likewise one of the most harsh). But what happened and why? This documentary adds to the list of resources on the tech boom and bust, and makes for interesting and informative viewing - after all it's best to learn from these types of things so you can identify them in the future and gain a better appreciation for the functioning of markets, the various market participants, and of course human (crowd) psychology. See also: Dot Coms Gone Bust, What Happened (Dot Com Boom and Bust), and The Internet Money Machine.

.Buy the DVD on Amazon 
Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2013/05/dot-com-bubble-documentary.html

What Happened (Dot Com Boom and Bust)

What Happened? This documentary with the name "What Happened" sets out to show you what happened during the dot com boom of the late 1990s. The documentary was created by Chas Mastin, Michael Lefort, Aldo Bello and a cast of characters in 2001-02. The documentary features interviews with such dot com luminaries as Mark Cuban. Find out what happened from those on the frontlines of the dot com boom. The documentary goes into how Internet entrepreneurs were paid obscene amounts of money for ideas and websites which made no money or didn't even have a hope of making money. Indeed the documentary claims over $20 billion of venture capital was poured into internet companies (the same amount spent on developing the nuclear bomb, and sending a man to space). Of course the investment banks played a major role in the mania - they provided capital, encouraged people to IPO in order to collect the big fees, and hyped up the valuations and prospects to a crowd of investors who were looking for hype. As interesting as this documentary is by itself, it's also an interesting example of a market mania - there will be future market manias so it is worth studying them and learning how to recognise and advantage from them.

Trade currencies, commodities, and stocks at eToro
Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2013/04/what-happened-dot-com-boom-and-bust.html

The City Uncovered - When Markets Go Mad

This BBC documentary takes you through the so-called "madness of markets". It begins by looking at just what is a market, what role does a market and its participants serve in the economy. Essentially markets exist as a mechanism for price discovery as demand meets supply. As the prices vary, economic agents vary their behaviour and the "invisible hand" adjusts the supply-demand balance. The presenter, Evan Davis, has some interesting interviews with a range of people to get their perspectives; professors, traders, fund managers, mortgage lenders, borrowers, and investment bankers. This documentary offers a fascinating look at the role of humans (and thus the role of psychology) in markets. At the end of the day, markets are made by people, and the behaviour of prices depends as much on the behaviour of people as it does on the economic fundamentals.

.Trade currencies, commodities, and stocks at eToro
Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2013/04/the-city-uncovered-when-markets-go-mad.html

1929 Stock Market Crash

This documentary looks at the 1929 stock market crash and offers a glimpse into life into 1920's USA - where a new age of industrialism and a brave new world of finance saw the stock market have one of its strongest runs, and most precipitous falls. One of the most fascinating aspects of looking at past market manias such as this is the familiarity of a stock market bubble. They occur with a reasonable degree of regularity, and result in massive fortunes - rapid rises in reputation and power... and then ruin and disrepute; depending on the person, their conduct, and their luck!

.Trade currencies, commodities, and stocks at eToro  
Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2013/02/1929-stock-market-crash.html

The Flash Crash

The "flash crash" was an intriguing event that occurred on May 6 2010, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged about 1000 points or approximately 9%, only to recover in minutes. Some companies dropped from a price of about $60 to like 1 cent - for no fundamental reason. The only answer was that a machine or a computer was the source of the trading, but questions remain - what went wrong? was it a rogue algorithm? was it intentional? but aside from those questions some market participants began to question the very integrity of markets now that computer and algorithmic and automatic trading has become such an endemic part of the market structure.

Among the theories to explain the flash crash are: "fat-finger" or human error, the impact of high frequency traders, large directional bets, changes in market structure, and technical glitches. While the event itself is very interesting, it is equally interesting to look at how the market is evolving, and the growing prevalence and influence of algorithmic/high frequency/quantitative/automated computer driven trading. This Dutch documentary (it is in Dutch, but the majority of speaking is in English) by Tegenlicht provides an excellent and in-depth look at the flash crash.  See also: Quants - The Alchemists Of Wall Street

..Buy the DVD on Amazon 
Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2012/09/the-flash-crash.html