Mean Markets and Lizard Brains explains why manias, panics, and crashes happen, why people keep making the same mistakes, and how you can not only avoid losing but turn the tide and profit, even if the markets continue to decline. In today’s volatile markets, this PBC comes at a perfect time. Terry Burnham, a behavioral economist who has a proven keen ability to translate complex topics into every day language, looks not only at the stock market but at the economy, real estate, bonds, mortgages, and savings, and shows how continued irrationality will have a big impact on all of us and what we can do about it. By spotting the insanity today, you can avoid the pain tomorrow.
Book Details:
- Author: Terry Burnham
- ISBN: 9780470245248
- Year Published: 2005
- Pages: 336
- BISAC: BUS036000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Investments & Securities / General
About the Book and Topic:
Mean Markets and Lizard Brains explains why manias, panics, and crashes happen, why people keep making the same mistakes, and how you can not only avoid losing but turn the tide and profit, even if the markets continue to decline. In today’s volatile markets, this PBC comes at a perfect time. Terry Burnham, a behavioral economist who has a proven keen ability to translate complex topics into every day language, looks not only at the stock market but at the economy, real estate, bonds, mortgages, and savings, and shows how continued irrationality will have a big impact on all of us and what we can do about it. By spotting the insanity today, you can avoid the pain tomorrow.
From The New Yorker to USA Today, everyone from journalists to market pros are turning to the science of behavioral finance to explain, analyze, and predict market direction. The 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics was even awarded to economists working in the area of behavioral finance. Finally, a pro with a talent for making the complex understandable explains what behavioral finance is, how our understanding of manias and panics has improved since the tulip bulb craze of the 1800s, and how individuals can use this information to profit in crazy markets whether they’re crazy up or crazy down.
PAPERBACK CONVERSION. This PBC will contain new and updated material, and the praise from Nassim Taleb and Vernon Smith, among others for the cloth edition makes this book a must-have. A HANDBOOK TO INVESTOR BEHAVIOR. Behavioral finance is a hot topic in the industry. This book will cover it in a lively and engaging way for individuals and market pros. HIGHLY CREDENTIALED AUTHOR WITH A SUCCESSFUL BOOK AND STRONG MEDIA CONTACTS. Burnham’s first book, Mean Genes, was praised by the press and scientists and everyone wanted to speak with Terry about this handbook to the brain and behavior. Burnham will do for investing and the markets what Mean Genes did for genetic behavior — bring academic theory down to real world practical applications. Every decade a concept comes along and captures the attention of the press and the marketplace. In the 1990s it was risk. In the first decade of the 21st century, it’s behavioral finance. CONTROVERSIAL. Most economists and market mavens believe in “efficient markets” but many young turk academics and market pros are turning that idea on its head and proving, theoretically and practically, that markets are irrational — full of manias, panics, and crashes. Investors are left confused and broke. Finally, a book that proves that investors don’t behave rationally and what you can do about it.
About the Author
Terry Burnham, (Cambridge, MA) is a leader in the application of biology to economics and finance. He was an economics professor at Harvard for many years, beginning at the Kennedy School and, most recently, at the Harvard Business School. His biological research has taken him to Africa to observe wild chimpanzees and to the laboratory to study the role of testosterone in negotiation. He is coauthor of the international bestseller Mean Genes. Before joining the Harvard faculty, he worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. and was the president and CFO of the successful start-up biotechnology firm, Progenics Pharmaceuticals, whose work in AIDS and cancer treatment has been widely praised. Dr. Burnham has a PhD in business economics from Harvard University, a master’s in finance from MIT, an MS in computer science from San Diego State University, and a BS in biophysics from the University of Michigan. He served with distinction as a tank driver in the U.S. Marine Corps.