Scott Nation's Critical Reads

Scott Nations is the president of NationsShares, a financial engineer firm. He is a regular contributor to CNBC, where he discusses markets and other investment topics. He is the author of two technical books for option traders, Options Math and The Complete Book of Option Spreads and Combinations. Nations will discuss A History of the United States in Five Crashes on October 19, 6pm at the Co-op.

The stories of the modern stock market crashes are a bit like the drama of the Titanic. We know how the stories end and they end badly but we enjoy hearing them nonetheless. In A History of the United States in Five Crashes the stories are told in an absorbing and accessible way to allow anyone, investor or not, to enjoy the narrative while learning about the similarities each of the five modern stock market crashes share. 

The personalities involved are larger than life as we’d expect when the events are so traumatic that we remember them still. Often a crash was stopped by the fortitude of a single person, working without regard for their own self-interest, because they were the only one capable of stopping the panic. Sometimes there’s no one to save the day and those who enjoyed a “speculative orgy” are left with nothing to do but pick up the pieces. 

Ultimately we learn how each crash changed the United States, not always for the better, and given that the stock market is now called on to finance millions of retirements and college educations, the stories are more important than ever.

The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market’s Perfect Storm, by Robert Bruner and Sean Carr

The Great Crash 1929, by John Kenneth Galbraith

Black Monday, The Stock Market Catastrophe of October 19, 1987, by Tim Metz

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefevre

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, by Roger Lowenstein

About A History of the United States in Five Crashes: In this absorbing, smart, and accessible blend of economic and cultural history in the vein of the works of Michael Lewis and Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financial executive and CNBC contributor examines the five most significant stock market crashes in the United States over the past century, revealing how they have defined the nation today.