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

2000-2002 Dot-com Bubble Collapse

"The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have brains they cannot sit tight." - Jesse Livermore. This quote epitomizes the stock market bubble of the late 90's, known as the Dot-Com bubble. Just as 1995-2000 saw the inflating of equity markets, 2000-2003 saw the inevitable burst. And many investors lost money, some--lost everything.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell from 11908 on 14th January 2000 to 7181 on 10th October 2002, a drop of 39.7% in nominal terms and 43.9% when adjusted for inflation. (The Nasdaq Composite in comparison, which is often used to track technology and growth, fell from 5,132 to 1,108, losing 78% of it's value.) Some companies like InfoSpace, a yellow pages venture, lost over 99% of their value, although many such businesses simply went bankrupt and became worthless. (Liquidated assets from a bankruptcy seldom reach the shareholders.) A poor choice of stocks in a portfolio was a curse for many.