Money & Markets

Money looks like arithmetic. It behaves like psychology. The same person who compares three phone plans before paying ten dollars a month will put a year’s savings into a stock because a friend at dinner sounded sure. Markets are millions of those decisions stacked on top of each other, and they move the way crowds move: slowly, then all at once.

This section is about the gap between the maths and the mind. We look at the stories behind famous bubbles and crashes, from tulips and railways to tech stocks and crypto, and at the quieter mistakes most of us make with our own money: chasing what just went up, selling in a panic, paying for confidence, and confusing a good outcome with a good decision.

Along the way you meet the ideas that explain them. Loss aversion, which makes a loss hurt about twice as much as the same gain feels good. Herding, which makes it feel safer to be wrong with everyone than right alone. Compounding, which turns small, boring habits into large sums, and small leaks into large losses. Survivorship bias, which hides every fund and founder that failed, so the winners look like a recipe.

None of this is investment advice, and we never tell you what to buy. The aim is simpler: to help you recognise the pattern while you are inside it, so that the next time a price, a tip or a headline pulls at you, you can see what is pulling.

Each article goes with one of our films. Start with the newest, or pick any story below.