The Crash Of '87

"In a market like this, every story is a positive one. Any news is good news. It's pretty much taken for granted now that the market is going to go up."
- Wall Street Journal, August 26, '87, the day after the 1987 market peak

"Stocks Plunge 508 Amid Panicky Selling; Percentage Decline Greater Than in 1929"
- Wall Street Journal, 10/20/87, the day after the '87 Crash - just 8 weeks after the top

Wheee..

"When the bell finally rang on Monday, it was worse that anyone could have imagined. The market started spiraling downward and never really stopped; by the time it closed, the Standard & Poor's 500 had lost 23 percent, making it the single worst day in the history of the American stock market. It was like "watching a Fellini movie, except that I was in it," John Spooner, an investment adviser, would later write in The Boston Globe. I spent most of the day at a Fidelity retail office, where so many investors had crowded outside to watch the electronic tape that traffic was blocked. We didn't talk to each other; we just stared at the window. I remember feeling paralyzed."