NEW YORK : Recent stock market volatility has stirred up haunting memories for veteran traders who got caught up in the Wall Street crash 20 years ago on October 19 known as "Black Monday."
As the anniversary of that day in 1987 nears, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock barometer plunged a dramatic 22.61 percent to 1,738.41 points, traders said modern technology has reduced some risks, but warned that market panics are always a danger.
Uncertainty swept Wall Street on "Black Monday" 1987, for no easily identifiable reason amid a lack of major economic news or other events, triggering a 508-point tumble in the Dow index that wiped out around 560 billion dollars in market worth.
The maelstrom was exacerbated as computer programmes kicked out more and more sell orders as stock prices plummeted, overwhelming some traders ability to fulfil the massive order flows.
"The atmosphere was one of panic. That was a day where we didn't know how bad things could get. The financial system and the equities market were on the verge of collapsing," recalled Art
Hogan, a trader at Jefferies. Hogan, then a rookie 26-year-old trader, was working at the Boston Stock Exchange when the markets imploded.
The 1987 meltdown saw the Dow dive by its biggest margin since it lost 24.39 percent of its value on December 12, 1914 when trading was resumed for the first time since the outbreak of the First World War.
This year's market jitters look fairly tame by comparison.
<---------- Will history repeat? I certainly hope not
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment