Found this fascinating piece of market history that actually makes you think about timing in crypto and traditional markets. Samuel Benner, an economist from the 1800s, mapped out these repeating patterns in financial cycles that are honestly kind of eerie when you look at how they've played out.

So here's the basic framework he identified: markets move through three distinct periods that repeat roughly every 18-20 years. Understanding these periods when to make money is the key insight most traders miss.

First, there's the panic years (A) – think 1927, 1945, 1965, 1981, 1999, 2019, and if the pattern holds, 2035 and 2053. These are the years when everything goes sideways. Financial crises hit, markets collapse, panic spreads. Benner's advice? Don't panic sell. Just survive and wait it out.

Then you've got the boom years (B) – the golden windows when prices are rising hard and markets are recovering strong. Years like 1928, 1943, 1953, 1960, 1973, 1980, 1989, 2000, 2007, 2016, 2020, and notably 2026 (which is interesting timing-wise). These are your exit periods. This is when you actually sell your positions and take profits. The market's doing the heavy lifting for you.

The third piece is the recession years (C) – the hard times when prices are crushed and the economy's limping along. 1924, 1931, 1942, 1951, 1958, 1969, 1978, 1985, 1996, 2005, 2012, 2023, 2032, 2040, 2050, 2059. These are the buy windows. When everyone's scared and prices are in the basement, that's when you accumulate. Then you hold and wait for the boom to come around.

The playbook is simple: buy when the market's down and sentiment is terrible, hold through the recovery, sell when boom years arrive and prices are elevated. Rinse and repeat.

Now here's the important caveat – this isn't gospel. Benner's cycles are based on historical patterns, but markets today are shaped by a ton of variables: geopolitics, technological disruption, monetary policy, wars, unexpected events. The theory gives you a framework for thinking about long-term market timing, but it's not a crystal ball.

Still, it's worth keeping in mind when you're thinking about your own strategy. These periods when to make money have played out with surprising consistency over 150 years, which suggests there's something real about how markets cycle through fear and greed. Whether it's psychology, structural factors, or just coincidence, the pattern's there if you know where to look.