Thirty-Six Years Today Stock Market Crash

[street]

October 19th, 1987 a 22.6% drop in one day. I believe it was the largest drop in a single day of the markets.
I really don't remember it but sure I was aware of the event at the time. I was very busy with life at that time frame and ER wasn't even a thought on my mind.
https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/stock-market-crash-of-1987

Noted as Black Monday.

 

[marko]

I remember the day. My boss lost over $6MM (on paper) and was walking around like nothing happened. He just grimaced and said "it's a bloody day" and went on with his day.

(that was a good lesson for me about "not running for the exits")

 

[MRG]

I was working in my tech job in financial services. A senior VP came by and told me "to keep an eye on the customer's online systems." They did some funny things, but all stayed up.

Oddly, this wouldn't be the only "Black Monday" that I would be part of during my career. Thankfully, the other one wasn't public knowledge.

 

[erkevin]

I remember it well. I saw a large chunk of Washington Mutual Investor's Fund vaporize (is that mutual fund still a thing?).

 

[Qs Laptop]

I made my first purchase of individual stock the day after the crash. I bought 100 shares of Cray Research and sold it about a month later for a 35% gain.

 

[Gumby]

I lost several thousand dollars that day, which was very painful at that point in my life.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I was 22 years old and had just invested $5,000 into two stock mutual funds the week before. Saw it go to $3,100 and I thought I was going to go broke. Held on and it came back.

This event has helped me stay calm during the many peaks and valleys over the next 36 years.

 

[ERD50]

The real thing to remember is, the stock market (in total return, the only number that matters, was UP for the year.

And had many good years for the next decade at least:
https://www.macrotrends.net/2324/sp-500-historical-chart-data

1997 873.43 737.01 983.79 737.01 970.43 31.01%
1996 670.49 620.73 757.03 598.48 740.74 20.26%
1995 541.72 459.11 621.69 459.11 615.93 34.11%
1994 460.42 465.44 482.00 438.92 459.27 -1.54%
1993 451.61 435.38 470.94 429.05 466.45 7.06%
1992 415.75 417.26 441.28 394.50 435.71 4.46%
1991 376.19 326.45 417.09 311.49 417.09 26.31%
1990 334.63 359.69 368.95 295.46 330.22 -6.56%
1989 323.05 275.31 359.80 275.31 353.40 27.25%
1988 265.88 255.94 283.66 242.63 277.72 12.40%
1987 287.00 246.45 336.77 223.92 247.08 2.03%

-ERD50

 

[Andre1969]

I was a senior in high school, and didn't have anything invested in stocks yet, so it didn't affect me personally. But I definitely remember it well.

Looking at those stock market returns above, it's kind of interesting. I remember hearing about how the economy was starting to fizz towards the end of Reagan's second term, and it wasn't so hot under Bush, which was one big reason Clinton won...he was talking about getting the economy back on track, whereas Bush started carrying on too much about "family values".

But, looking at those numbers, that era doesn't look so bad. Especially since we had Desert Shield/Desert Storm in there, and I can remember a few fuel shortages and high gas prices.

Of course, there's the old saying that "Wall Street doesn't reflect Main Street." February of 1994 was when I finally got hired on full-time, and I do remember the job situation around that '92-94 timeframe seeming a bit tight.

A bad marriage pretty much took all my money in 1995-97 (and 1998), so money that could have been invested was instead used to pay off bills, so I missed that little gravy train.

 

[Midpack]

I made my first purchase of individual stock the day after the crash. I bought 100 shares of Cray Research and sold it about a month later for a 35% gain.

So did I. I wasn’t in the market until the day after Black Monday. I went all in on OCF because a 1986 hostile takeover attempt had crushed the stock - and then Black Monday took shares from $40’s to $9/share. I made 35% in a couple months. Sold some, and held the rest for a 2 bagger. Young, stupid and lucky. Needless to say my IP improved in the years after…

 

[easysurfer]

Seems longer than 35 years ago.

I was pretty much just starting out at megacorp and wasn't invested in any equities yet.

I remember co-workers in a panic.

 

[street]

Seems longer than 35 years ago.

I was pretty much just starting out at megacorp and wasn't invested in any equities yet.

I remember co-workers in a panic.

Actually, it was 36 years ago. I can't seem to be able to correct that title.

 

[pacergal]

Remember it well. We had been in our 457b for a few years, seeing that total drop was a gut wrencher, even though it wasn't too much at the time probably less than $10k.
But, one of my Dads famous quotes and reminders "It will come back, stay invested".
And it did.

 

[easysurfer]

Actually, it was 36 years ago. I can't seem to be able to correct that title.

So my memory didn't fail me this time after all .

 

[snappytom]

I remember it well, was doing IT support at a large west coast bank for their personal trust business line. Everyone was freaking out and the Portfolio Managers were just trying to keep their clients calm.
Thankfully the systems remained up and stable so IT could stay in the background.
At the time I was not an investor but it opened my eyes to the types of risk some people exposed themselves to.

 

[punkinhead]

I was in the last year of my undergrad and was interviewing for engineering jobs. Strangely, I and all of my classmates got multiple offers so it didn't seem to effect entry level hiring.

 

[Spock]

I remember it well. That week on Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser the guest speaker was a VP at I think Solomon Brothers. I can still picture his face but due to recent declines I can't remember his name. The whole show was wailing and nashing of teeth until Rukeyser sat down with the VP. The VP very calmly described that the market was going to go up because there was a huge (at that time) amount liquidity coming from Greenspan et.al. Now known as the Greenspan Put.
It's been the Fed hail mary play ever since.

 

[Major Tom]

I was in my mid-20's and had been in the US for less than a year at that point, so although Black Monday didn't affect me directly, I have a general memory of it, the same way you would of any big news event. For me, the more vivid memory was the Whittier Narrows earthquake, which happened on Oct 1st 1987. I was dropping my partner off at her work in Pasadena. While attempting to parallel park (I had only just passed the drive test), I saw the car in front of me move. It struck me as odd, because I was sure that I hadn't hit it. I put the car into reverse, looked behind me, and saw the car behind me also shake. Somewhat unnerved, I looked up at my partner's office building and saw the glass panes in all the windows wobbling. I had never experienced an earthquake before but in that moment, realized what must be happening. I was new to Southern California, and was experiencing my first earthquake. Fun times! for those two reasons, I remember October 1987 as generally a quite devastating month.

I remember it well. I saw a large chunk of Washington Mutual Investor's Fund vaporize (is that mutual fund still a thing?).

I believe it has the ticker AWSHX.

 

[Sue J]

We were 32 years old with a 3 year old and a 9 month old baby. I was a stay at home mom. DH was making enough for us to be saving but we had nothing in the stock market. We only had CDs and a savings account at a local bank.

But my sister called me. Her husband had invested "on margin". I didn't know what that meant at the time, but he borrowed money to buy stocks and lost a bunch that day. She said he did this without her knowledge. Anyway, this hit them hard and they struggled for a while to recover.

 

[Chuckanut]

I remember that day. I was working and decided that forces beyond my understanding and control were fighting each other and all I could and should do was to stay out of their fight.

IIRC, the market was still up for the year at the end of the day. Another reason to stay out of the fight.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I made my first purchase of individual stock the day after the crash. I bought 100 shares of Cray Research and sold it about a month later for a 35% gain.

So did I. I wasn’t in the market until the day after Black Monday. I went all in on OCF because a 1986 hostile takeover attempt had crushed the stock - and then Black Monday took shares from $40’s to $9/share. I made 35% in a couple months. Sold some, and held the rest for a 2 bagger. Young, stupid and lucky. Needless to say my IP improved in the years after…

I was young and stupid too. I was invested in the safe option of the company's retirement plan. I had a co-worker about 10 years older than me that was urging me to get more aggressive with my retirement plan. He did stock trades now and again and had been suggesting I do the same. When Black Monday hit he practically begged me to get in and suggested Cray Research.

Thus started my habit of buying tech stocks on the dips. Has served me well with Tesla stock recently, and several others over the years.

 

[Major Tom]

IIRC, the market was still up for the year at the end of the day. Another reason to stay out of the fight.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs, etc etc..........

 

[Texas Proud]

Yes, an interesting day.... I was at my desk doing finance work when a friend called me talking about the market dropping... me.. OK...


Then he called up an hour later... and an hour after that... and then a few minutes before close and was giving me a blow by blow reading of the DOW.... Both of us lost a good amount of our investment as we were 100% stock... both of us did nothing and our monthly buys in the 401(k) kept going so we got a discount for awhile...


Had to check and memory was wrong... the market went down to the 1700s... we have all made a good amount of money since then if we stayed in...

 

[Healthy Lifestyle]

1987 offered a valuable learning lesson in the stock market for me. I will never forget that day, week and year as a new young investor.

I watched the stock market drop that day and the following 3 days afterwards.
I got nervous watching my paper profits disappear and sold my stock investments.
Nine months later the market recovered from its lows in 1987.

 

[mpeirce]

I recall it vividly.

There was a woman at work who totally freaked out. She sold all her stocks pretty much at the bottom price that day.

Obviously a very bad decision.

Glad I was able to learn from her mistake and not my own.