Background music - softly playing Twlight Zone Theme

Set stage for déjà vu ....

.... It was the night of October 21, 1929, *margin calls were heavy and numerous Dutch and German sell calls came overnight for the Tuesday morning stock market opening.

On Tuesday morning, banks and corporations called in $150 million of call loans and Wall Street was in panic before the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opened.

On October 24, 1929, people began selling their stocks as fast as they could. Sell orders flooded the market.

On a normal day, only 750 – 800 members of the NYSE started the Exchange. However, there were 1100 members for the morning opening that day.

Furthermore, the Exchange directed all employees to be present since there were numerous margin calls and sell orders placed overnight and extra telephone staff were arranged. The DJIA closed at 299 that day.

October 29 was the beginning of the crash. Within the first few hours the stock market was open, prices fell so far as to wipe out all the gains that had been made in the previous year. The DJIA closed at 230 points.

Since the DJIA was - and still is – viewed as the chief indicator of the American economy, public confidence was shattered. Between October 29 and November 13 (when stock prices hit their lowest point) over $30 billion disappeared from the American economy. It took 25 years – until 1954 – for the markets to totally recover. A new high was reached after303 months with an overall gain of 803%.

Stock Market Crash 1929 Information