Crashes
10 stories
Black Wednesday: How Sterling Broke the ERM (1992) - QuickFinanceStories
On September 16th, 1992, one man bet against the entire British government. And won. His name was George…
Long-Term Capital Management: When Genius Met Leverage (1998) - QuickFinanceStories
They called it the smartest hedge fund on Wall Street. Two Nobel Prize winners. A team of PhD…
Fannie & Freddie Seized: The 2008 Conservatorship - QuickFinanceStories
They were supposed to make the American Dream possible. Instead, they almost destroyed it. This is the story of Fannie Mae and Freddie…
How Volkswagen Became the Most Valuable Company in the World - By Accident (2008 Short Squeeze)
In 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, something happened on the German stock market that no one expected — and most hedge funds would prefer to…
The 2010 Flash Crash: 36 Minutes of Market Mayhem - QuickFinanceStories
On May 6th, 2010, the stock market did something no one thought possible. It crashed nearly 1,000 points in minutes. Then recovered almost…
MF Global: Corzine, Repo Trades, and a $1.6B Shortfall (2011) - QuickFinanceStories
Jon Corzine was a Wall Street legend. Former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Former Governor of New…
JPMorgan’s London Whale: The $6B Hedge Gone Wrong (2012) - QuickFinanceStories
His name was Bruno Iksil. Traders called him "The London Whale" because his positions were so massive, they moved entire markets. He worked for JPMorgan…
Greensill & SoftBank: The Supply-Chain Finance Crackup (2021) - QuickFinanceStories
It sounded boring. Supply chain finance. Paying invoices early for a small…
Evergrande: China’s $300B Property Crunch (2021) - QuickFinanceStories
It was the world's most indebted company. $300 billion in liabilities. Building homes for a billion people. Until it couldn't build anything at…
SVB’s Two-Day Bank Run (2023) - QuickFinanceStories
It took 48 hours. That's how fast Silicon Valley Bank went from "fine" to "gone." The second-largest bank failure in American history. And it happened at the…