Educate Yourself - Black Monday

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Black Monday
Brian Trumbore
President/Editor, StocksandNews.com

The Crash?by the numbers

8/12/82??776?Dow Jones Industrial Average bottoms*

12/31/82?1046
12/31/83?1258
12/31/84?1211
12/31/85?1546
12/31/86?1895

1/30/87?..2158
2/27/87?..2223
3/31/87?..2304
4/30/87?..2286
5/29/87?..2291
6/30/87?..2418
7/31/87?..2572
8/25/87?..2722?Dow Jones peaks, up 43.6% for the year
8/31/87?..2662
9/30/87?..2596

10/5/87?..2640?159mm shares traded on NYSE
10/6/87?..2548?175mm
10/7/87?..2551?186mm
10/8/87?..2516?198mm
10/9/87?..2482?158mm

10/12/87?2471?141mm
10/13/87?2508?172mm
10/14/87?2412?207mm
10/15/87?2355?263mm
10/16/87?2246?338mm

10/19/87?1738?604mm?down 22.6% for the day
10/20/87?1841?608mm
10/21/87?2027?449mm
10/22/87?1950?392mm
10/23/87?1950?245mm

10/26/87?1793?308mm
10/27/87?1846?260mm
10/28/87?1846?279mm
10/29/87?1938?258mm
10/30/87?1993?303mm

11/30/87?1833
12/31/87?1938

Source: "The Dow Jones Averages, 1885-1995," edited by Phyllis S. Pierce

On a closing basis, the Dow Jones never saw the 1738 mark from Oct. 19 again. It closed at 1766 on Dec. 4, but that was as close at it got.

*And the 776 low from 8/12/82? For you market junkies out there, as I was looking up the numbers for this piece it hit me. What's the significance of 776? Why that is also the 10/9/02 low in the S&P 500, the fifth anniversary of which we just celebrated. Yes, 776! [To be exact, the Dow closed at 776.92 on 8/12/82 and the S&P 776.76 on 10/9/02.]

Lastly, I was reading a piece in Trader Monthly magazine on the Crash and there is this quote from everyone's favorite on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Art Cashin.

7:00 a.m., Monday, Oct. 19, 1987

"When we came in, the market already looked like it would be down 5 percent, which was a horrendous number. I remember someone in the Luncheon Club was going past the breakfast tables, and he turned to someone else and quoted from the ancient Roman gladiators. He said, 'We who are about to die salute you.' That's how much people thought that it was going to be a bloody Monday. The scale of it, however, was never, ever dreamed of."

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Wall Street History returns next week.

Brian Trumbore

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