It Was Twenty Years Ago Today
Twenty years ago the stock market dropped 508 points, which then represented over 20% of the Dow Jones Industrials' value.
I remember that day well. I was in downtown Chicago, going out to lunch, when I saw people gathered around a window where the Dow numbers were updated regularly. I didn't think it meant anything, but I noticed on the way back the crowd was still there.
I went up to the window and saw the numbers. I didn't know what to make of it, but I heard plenty of people talk about a new Depression. Of course, it turned out to be a hiccup, and by the end of the year the numbers were back to normal. It taught me a lesson to (at least try to) take the long view when it comes to the economy.
posted by LAGuy @ 1:28 PM
2 Comments:
The article you linked to says,
Nearly half the Dow's loss happened in the last hour of trading.
I suppose that was probably the largest one-hour drop, then?
I would guess so. It was some sort of line that had been crossed that caused automatic sell-offs. There were then lots of suggestions as to how to slow things down, which seemed silly to me. I suggested once we'd dropped 100 points, all selling be done by voice and no one could say more than one word every five seconds.
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