Stock Market Crash of 1987

I was in my 20s and working for a small business owner on Black Monday, October 19, 1987. I did not own stocks. I was doing good just to get by on my modest income; this was before finishing college and gaining valuable work experience.

My boss, on the other hand, was in a terrible mood that financially dark, historic day. It was blatently apparent that something had gone seriously awry to everyone who came across his path. He had heard the news. The stock market had spiraled downward dropping 508 points, or 22 percent.

I don’t know how much he had invested, but from his fowl disposition it was substantial and he, of course, was not alone in this predicament. A predicament that had occurred to market gamblers before.

The most notable being The Wall Street Crash of 1929, which included three “Black” days in October; Thursday 24th, Monday 28th & Tuesday 29th. It only got worse from there, when in November of 1929 the market fell from 400 to 145 and over $5 billion worth of market capitalization disappeared from the value of stocks in just three days time.

Sources: List of stock market crashes and bear markets
Factbox: The 1987 Crash, by the numbers