David Chambers (Cambridge University) is speaking tomorrow at a seminar at Queen's University's Finance Seminar Series. His paper is about currency trading at the origin of modern currency markets in the 1920s and 1930s. In particular, he and his co-author look at the currency trading of John Maynard Keynes and compare his fundamentals-based strategy to alternatives. The paper is available here. Below is a video of David talking about his work on Keynes the investor.
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.