Overview
Research in this theme uses financial history to illuminate contemporary questions in investment and corporate finance. Projects examine the evolution of financial markets, the investment record of John Maynard Keynes, the development of Indian equity markets since 1900, and the emergence of corporate credit rating agencies. By drawing on archival sources, long‑run datasets and historical case studies, the work shows how past crises, innovations and policy choices have shaped today’s institutions and market practices. Together, these projects demonstrate how historical analysis can deepen our understanding of risk, return and market development.
Projects
News and insights
Media coverage
Forbes | 22 January 2016
Why currency trading is a bad idea: Keynes
John Maynard Keynes struggled as a foreign-exchange trader, finds the first detailed study of the famous economist as currency speculator. “If someone as economically literate and well-connected as Keynes found it difficult to time currencies, then the rest of us should think twice before believing we can do any better,” says co-author David Chambers, Reader in Finance and an Academic Director of the Newton Centre for Endowment Asset Management (CEAM) at Cambridge Judge Business School.
Bloomberg View | 15 January 2016
FX traders, take heart: even Keynes lost his shirt
John Maynard Keynes struggled as a foreign-exchange trader, finds the first detailed study of the famous economist as currency speculator. “If someone as economically literate and well-connected as Keynes found it difficult to time currencies, then the rest of us should think twice before believing we can do any better,” says co-author David Chambers, Reader in Finance and an Academic Director of the Newton Centre for Endowment Asset Management (CEAM) at Cambridge Judge Business School.
The Times | 13 January 2016
Big Short put Keynes on the brink of bankruptcy
John Maynard Keynes was ‘a financial genius whose ideas dominated western economic policy making for 50 years’, writes Patrick Hosking in The Times. But it’s little know that Keynes was also trading in foreign currency. The latest study co-authored by David Chambers, Reader in Finance and Academic Director of the Newton Centre for Endowment Asset Management at Cambridge Judge, found that Keynes struggled as a foreign-exchange trader.
The Guardian | 12 January 2016
John Maynard Keynes ‘a great economist but poor currency trader’
A study co-authored by Elroy Dimson, Research Director (Finance) and Chairman of the Centre for Endowment Asset Management (CEAM) at Cambridge Judge Business School, is mentioned in this article about small-cap stocks.
Financial Times | 5 September 2014
How to see into the future
“John Maynard Keynes’s track record over a quarter century running the discretionary portfolio of King’s College Cambridge was excellent, outperforming market benchmarks by an average of six percentage points a year, an impressive margin.” David Chambers, University Lecturer in Finance, and Elroy Dimson, Research Director (Finance & Accounting), at Cambridge Judge Business School, discuss their study.
Financial Advisor | 2 June 2014
Keynes’ way to wealth
John Wasik investigates why John Maynard Keynes is one of the most important economists in history and refers to research by David Chambers, Director of the CJBS Centre for Endowment Asset Management and Elroy Dimson, Co-Director of the Centre for Endowment Asset Management (CEAM).
New York Times | 10 February 2014
John Maynard Keynes’ own portfolio not too dismal
Reporter John Wasik investigates influential economist John Maynard Keynes’s approach to investing in research by David Chambers, Director of the CJBS Centre for Endowment Asset Management and Elroy Dimson, Co-Director of CEAM.
The Daily Telegraph | 26 October 2013
How to invest like… J. Maynard Keynes
The influential economist also happened to deliver annual returns of 15pc in a timespan covering the Wall Street Crash and the Second World War, writes Andrew Oxlade. In a newly published study of Keynes’s investments for King’s College, Cambridge, Dr David Chambers, university lecturer in Finance, and Professor Elroy Dimson, research director in Finance and Accounting of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, acknowledges Keynes’s idiosyncratic style.