A first-class book on the flash crash of 1987, which didn't happen nor recover quite as quickly as everyone remembers. Extensively well-researched, the author takes pains to lay out the likely causes and impetuses for the big day without seeming to lay the blame unfairly on any given sector. I was pleased that she drew connections to both the modern day and more modern crashes (2008) without swamping the rest of the work. It's a little dry, sure, but given the subject matter I'd say it actually overachieves with regard to readability. An excellent retelling of this chapter of financial history. ( )

Very informative look back on the 1980's financial world. ( )

First things first: You do not have to perfectly understand high finance to understand this book. It certainly helps if you know the differences between stock index options, future contracts, thrifts and physical commodities (among many other things), and how they all interact with each other, but it's not required.

The narrative covers the evolution of major American exchanges, mostly in New York and Chicago, and a variety of financial products in the 1980s. There are lots of names, organizations and types of financial products flying around. Despite this, the overall course of events can be followed and major threads followed. Towards the end it was difficult for me to put down, mostly due to the resemblances between 1987 and 2008.

The author wrote the book partly as a warning to the audience - this sentiment makes up a chunk of the epilogue. The stock market in the '80s had ever-growing investors (huge corporate clients dwarfed and pushed out smaller ones, and especially individual investors), ever-increasing technology, and ever more arcane financial derivative products that were poorly understood, poorly regulated, and tied various financial firms and companies together in ways that nobody understood or expected. Neither the federal government nor the financial system come off particularly well - the American financial system is depicted as a sports car being driven at high speed in the dark with the hope that nothing goes wrong, while appointed officials frequently fight with each other over turf and elected officials frequently don't understand or care, provided they can get re-elected.

Can't speak for everyone else, but I found this to be a very informative and interesting book, even though I drowned a bit in unfamiliar terminology. ( )

An event that happened 30 years ago still has an effect on us today. It seems that no one learned from the disaster of that time and some elements come back in 2008 to change the course of history again. The book is a must read to look at the events that led to Black Monday and almost changed the financial system of America. ( )

I was only a teenager when "Black Monday" happened in 1987, and I've always been curious about the circumstances that led to it. After reading Henriques' book, I have a deeper understanding of both it and the subsequent financial crisis of 2008. This book is both informative and entertaining, as it reads more like a Dan Brown thriller than a Wall Street exposé. I came away from reading it with a better understanding of how the stock market works, and a new appreciation for just how fragile our financial system really is. ( )