Many investors were lulled into complacency by the stock market bull run stretching from 2003 to 2007. Now that the markets have moved into extreme bear territory investors are wondering what to do and whether it is still the case that equities have delivered the best returns among all investment classes. In this incisive study Stephen Vines shows how stock markets operate in good times and bad and provides timely advice on how to benefit from the regular cycle of market panic and market boom. He provides some unusual answers to questions regularly asked by investors and shows why panics offer unique opportunities. Long held assumptions about the benefits of investment diversification are challenged and new ways of understanding the panic cycle are offered. Interviews with market professionals directly involved in handling some major stock crises provide a compelling insider?s account of what actually happens when panics break out. This book also looks at ways in which stock markets are becoming more detached from the companies and economies they are supposed to represent and shows how this is building a new and more dangerous form of instability into the market system. This is a truly comprehensive study examining all aspects of the stock market panic phenomenon. Presented in readable, jargon-free form this book will be of interest to anyone who invests in stock markets and is interested in preserving their wealth.