“Black Thursday” October 24th, 1929

Did you know that on “Black Thursday” October 24th, 1929 the stock market dropped 12%. At that time it was the largest single day loss in history.

There are reports of people jumping out of their office towers to their death that day. The New York Stock Exchange took twenty five years, till 1954, to recover what it had lost up to and during the great depression.
Why is this important?

Consider “Black Friday” October 19th, 1987 when the Toronto Stock Exchange lost 22.5% in one day.

That same day the New Zealand exchange lost over 60%. It took nearly four years to recover. Popular belief is that Black Friday was caused by programmed traders, computers performing rapid trades.
It was the first time that computer trading was blamed for the result. It started in Hong Cong and spread rapidly throughout the entire world that day. ( for an update on how this is effecting the market today see the link on  CBS News, 60 Minutes documentary by Steve Croft June 5th 2011)

The tech crash of 2001 set the markets reeling and took nearly 4 years to recover what was lost. The lending practises of US banks was the catalyst for the crash of 2008 and it has taken till now to recover and many analysts say brace for the next one because of the precarious situation many countries fiscal finances are in such as Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Japan.  Do we see a pattern?

The crashes are getting closer together and more severe. During the past decade 2001 - 2011 the market has been recovering for 8 of those years. No wonder our savings and retirement plans haven’t been performing all that well.

If you want more information on the wild rides the market takes and what you can do about it, contact me.

Dave Meidl
Kelowna Financial Advisor
Intent Market Solutions
www.intentmarketsolutions.com
250-575-3576
Investing with Purpose