EPISODE · Aug 27, 2026 · 32 MIN
Alex Edmans - The Madness of Markets
from Standard Deviations with Dr. Daniel Crosby · host Dr. Daniel Crosby, Alex Edmans
Tune in to hear: If markets are as mad as Alex and Dr. Crosby suggest, why do we still see that most active managers have such a difficult time trying to beat markets? When Alex tells stories about how sporting events or the weather might move the market, is there any signal there for the average investor or is he simply making a broader point about how our emotions may color the way we think about markets? Alex subdivides our behaviorally biased reactions to markets into overreaction, underreaction and misreaction. What do each of these look like practically for investors? Is wokeness the reason the market keeps ignoring evidence for important behavioral data, like employee satisfaction? What is Alex’s take on AI and where does he think we are on the spectrum between true revolution and mania? Is there a behavior that looks like discipline, but is really just bias wearing a better suit? If someone was to use Alex’s upcoming book as a mirror into their own behavior, what is one practical thing that they could do to better understand themselves and do a self-audit? Links The Madness of Markets (Pre-order) Alex Edmans on LinkedIn Alex Edman’s Website Connect with Us Meet Dr. Daniel Crosby Check Out All of Orion’s Podcasts Power Your Growth with Orion Disclosures: These show notes may contain links to third-party websites. Any links to such third-party websites are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by Orion of the content on such third-party websites, or any affiliation or association with its operators. Orion is not responsible for the content of linked third-party websites, including, without limitation, any link contained in a linked website, or any changes or updates to a linked website, and do not make any representations regarding the information, services, products or accuracy of any material contained on such third-party websites. Compliance Code: 2336-U-26223
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What this episode covers
This week on Standard Deviations with Dr. Daniel Crosby, Dr. Crosby is joined by Alex Edmans. Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School, specialising in corporate finance, responsible business, sustainable investing and behavioral finance. Alex is the author of Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit (a Financial Times Book of the Year for 2020), May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About It, and the classic finance textbook Principles of Corporate Finance (with Brealey, Myers, and Allen). His latest book, The Madness of Markets: How Smart Investors Make Crazy Decisions – And How to Exploit Them, will be published by Penguin Random House in September 2026. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist (“By Invitation”), Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum and been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News and Sky Sports. Alex has won 30 teaching awards and was named Professor of the Year by Poets & Quants in 2021. He previously served as Mercers' School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College, delivering a four-year programme of public lectures covering The Principles of Finance, The Psychology of Finance, Business Skills for the 21st Century and How Business Can Better Serve Society. Alex graduated from Oxford University, worked at Morgan Stanley in investment banking and fixed income sales and trading and completed a PhD at MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar. He joined Wharton in 2007, was tenured in 2013 and subsequently moved to London Business School. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the CFA Society of the UK.
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Alex Edmans - The Madness of Markets
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