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Triumph of the Optimists: 101 Years of Global Investment Returns

Authors: Dimson, Marsh and Staunton
Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2002

Comments:

This is an interesting and ambitious quantitative study of global investing during the 101 years of the 20th Century. Retailing at $150, this is not your average pocket book -- the price would even make coffee table book collectors flinch a bit! The density of the information also makes this a long, slow read.

We will post interesting observations and facts from the book on an update basis:

• Amsterdam lays claim to the oldest stock market, in 1611, although France can lay claim to the oldest formal exchange, in 1724
• The total market capitalization of the world's stock markets at the end of the last century was $36 trillion
• The total value of the world's bond markets at the end of the last century was $31 trillion
• The U.S. represented slightly less than 1/2 of both of these totals

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