Martin Zweig

Martin Zweig earned his PhD in finance from the University of Michigan and built a career as a market strategist and fund manager. He is most famous for a remarkable prediction: appearing on Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week television programme on the Friday before Black Monday (October 19, 1987), Zweig stated that he believed the market was about to crash because of a combination of extremely overbought conditions, rising interest rates, and a deteriorating monetary environment. The market fell 22% the following Monday — the largest single-day percentage decline in Dow Jones history — in a dramatic validation of his thesis. Zweig developed several important market indicators, including the Put/Call Ratio — the ratio of put option volume to call option volume as a sentiment indicator for market direction. His monetary model of stock market timing — based on the relationship between Fed policy, interest rates, and equity returns — was influential in developing quantitative approaches to market analysis. He published the Zweig Forecast newsletter and wrote 'Winning on Wall Street' (1986). Zweig also managed money through Zweig-DiMenna Associates. He passed away in 2013.