The Man Who Crashed the Market

“We do what the market tells us to do. And we never hedge. Only losers hedge.”

This week in 1981, one of the most amusing episodes in the history of the stock market took place when Joe Granville issued his dire decree. Granville had a boiler room filled with banks of phones to distribute his message of doom. His subscribers were alerted, via telephone call or answering machine message, with the following statement:

This is a Granville Early Warning. Sell everything. Market top has been reached. Go short on stocks having sharpest advances since April. Click

The Dow Jones spit up 6% overnight on this call and The Street was amazed. The mainstream media clamored to learn more about the man behind this phenomenon. What they uncovered was hilarious.

I want you to visit the following links to learn about this story because it’s highly apropos of some of the things we’re hearing and seeing now.

First, here’s my take on why no one has “signals” that can accurately, consistently time the market:

A man and his signals (TRB)

This archival news video about the aftermath of Granville’s call is f***ing awesome:

The Day Joe Granville Crashed the Market (Video) (TRB)

The chapter in my book about Granville is among the best things I’ve ever written, I think. I published it here for free:

Exclusive Excerpt: The Man Who Moved Markets (TRB)

Barry’s take here:

Be Smart. Don’t Try to Time the Market. (Bloomberg View)