Dow Jones Industrial Average

1896-2009 1929 Wall Street Crash 1930's Great Depression 1950-1960's Post-WWII Baby Boomer Generation 1973 and 1979 Oil Crisis and Stagflation 1987 Black Monday 2000-2002 Dot-com Bubble Collapse 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis 1995-2000 Dot-com Bubble

1987 Black Monday

On October 19, 1987 (Black Monday, known in some countries as Black Tuesday due to time differences), stock markets across the world crashed in one of the biggest one-day moves in recorded history. The event remains a black swan in that there was no clear cause. It is believed that the new era of automated program or system trading (computer technology was advancing at this point) was exacerbating what may have otherwise been a small correction in the market due to policy change or world events. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was already in a bear market at the time. It had peaked 2746.65 on August 25th of the same year. It fell to a low of 1616.21 during Tuesday 20th October, 1987, from a high of 2164.16 on the Monday open. A 25.3% single-day drop. Using the previous Friday's close of 2,246.73 and the consideration of working hours, this was a 28.1% drop in one 36 hour period.