Every market crisis feels unprecedented in the moment, yet the mechanics rhyme: leverage that looked safe, liquidity that vanished when it was needed most, and a crowded trade unwinding all at once. This page collects Khan Capital’s coverage of the modern era’s defining crashes and dislocations, from the 2020 pandemic crash to the 2023 banking failures and the 2024 carry-trade unwind. Each section links to our detailed analysis of what broke, why, and what it means for how risk is really priced.
Latest in this story
The Yen Carry Trade Unwind (Aug 2024) · definitive post-mortem
The 2020 pandemic crash
The fastest bear market in history arrived in weeks. Covid-19 and the fastest bear market in history charts the collapse, while the March 2020 liquidity crisis examines the dash for cash that briefly broke even the Treasury market. The dislocation ran so deep that, for the first time ever, WTI crude went negative to minus $37.
The 2023 banking crisis
A rate shock met fragile balance sheets. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was the fastest bank run in history, spreading into the wider contagion that took down Signature and Silvergate. In Europe, the stress claimed a giant: the forced Credit Suisse-UBS merger and the AT1 bond wipeout. The final domino was First Republic, seized and sold to JPMorgan.
When hidden leverage breaks
The most violent unwinds come from positioning the market could not see. The 2018 Volpocalypse destroyed the short-volatility trade in a single session; the Archegos collapse showed how one family office’s hidden swaps could vaporise billions in a margin call; and the August 2024 yen carry-trade flash crash demonstrated how a leveraged global funding trade can unravel worldwide in hours.
When policy breaks the plumbing
Sometimes the financial system’s pipes seize up on their own. The September 2019 repo market crisis forced the Fed back into the money markets, and the 2022 UK mini-budget crisis showed how fiscal policy can break a sovereign bond market and threaten the pension system in days.
Bubbles and the reckoning
Excess takes time to clear. The Q4 2018 selloff was the market’s first warning that Fed tightening and trade war had limits; the 2022 tech wreck repriced a generation of growth stocks; and the Evergrande crisis exposed the fault lines beneath China’s property-driven economy.
The through-line
The common thread across every episode is the gap between perceived and actual risk: leverage that is invisible until it isn’t, and liquidity that is abundant until everyone reaches for it at once. We add to this hub as new dislocations occur; the latest analysis always appears first on our analysis page.