The Stages of a Market Mania

What is a mania? It is defined as mental illness characterized by great excitement, euphoria, delusions and overactivity. In investing, this translates into investment decisions being driven by fear and greed without being tempered with analysis, reason or balance of risk and reward outcomes. The mania is usually running parallel with the business development of the product, but timing can sometimes run askew. The late 90’s technology.com boom and today’s cryptocurrency boom are two examples of how a mania operates in real time. These two events will be highlighted with each stage in this article.