Why Case Studies Matter

The previous fourteen modules give frameworks. Frameworks help you analyse the future. Case studies show how those frameworks would have actually helped during specific past episodes — and where they would have led you astray.

Six case studies covered here, each picked because it teaches a distinct lesson:

1. 2008 GFC — global crisis, equity drawdown of 50%+, the value of a diversified SAA
2. 2018 NBFC crisis — sector-specific contagion, credit risk in supposedly-safe debt funds
3. 2017-18 mid-cap mania — valuation extremes, herding, inevitable corrections
4. 2020 COVID drawdown — the V-shaped recovery, the cost of panic-selling
5. 2014-20 real estate stagnation — illiquidity costs, illusion of "always going up"
6. 2020-23 crypto cycle — speculative euphoria, FOMO, the price of late entry

For each, we'll examine:
- What was happening macro/sector/company-level
- What the average investor was doing
- What disciplined investors did
- The actual outcome
- The lesson for current investors

The goal is not nostalgia. The goal is to recognise the pattern when it recurs (which it will, in different specific clothes) — and act with discipline rather than emotion.

Now apply this — review your portfolio against the lessons →