October 29th, 1929: Black Tuesday

The Beginning Of The End Thursday, October 24th, 1929 - 12.9 million shares were traded; then, 4 million was considered a busy day - First sign of the decline of the “bull” market - Thomas Lamont stepped in to calm investors saying the large number of trades was encouraged by a “technical error”

The Beginning Of The End Monday, October 28th, 1929 - Around 9.25 million shares were traded - The ticker tape ran so far behind people began desperately selling without even knowing the share value

Tuesday, October 29th, 1929 Black Tuesday - A record 16.4 million shares were traded on Black Tuesday - Bankers began dumping their holdings while at the same time assuring the public that all was well with the market - The market lost 13% of its value in one day

The Final Results - By the end of November, investors had lost over $100 billion dollars - In just over a month the market had lost over 40% of its value - The Roaring 20s quickly became a memory as the nation’s economy collapsed

The Final Results - Stock market investors were not the only ones hurt by the crash - Banks had lent their cash reserves to brokers - Brokers lost that money when their customers could not respond to margin calls and failed to repay their loans

The Final Results - Savings deposits were not federally insured - People who had kept their money in banks found their savings had vanished - Thus, the market crash caught millions of innocent bystanders in the financial crunch