Black Tuesday - 1929

Black Tuesday is notorious for being the worst day in the U.S. stock market, but in terms of percentage loss, the honor goes to Black Monday (1987 and 1929). To understand what makes it the worst day, read on.

Black Tuesday - October 29th, 1929

Combine the worst features of Black Thursday with the worst features of Black Monday and you get Black Tuesday. On Thursday, a record 12.9 million shares traded and the ticker tape fell behind one and a half hours. On Black Tuesday, a new record of 16.4 million shares were traded and the ticker tape fell behind by two and a half hours! On Monday, the stock market suffered a record one-day loss of around 13 percent. On Black Tuesday, the market suffered a loss of about 12 percent.

Like the previous "Black Days," the top bankers held a meeting during the day about the market. Only this time they met twice – once at noon and again in the evening. Once again, Thomas Lamont spoke with the press, but this time it was mostly business. Rumors were that the bankers were selling stocks rather then stabilizing the market. He dispelled the rumors, but did not offer the positive remarks that the previous tragic days featured.

Here is what the Seattle Times wrote about Black Tuesday:

"A veritable bedlam of activity reigned in leading stock brokerage houses in Seattle today as the greatest avalanche of security selling known to history was launched on New York exchanges. Executives and clerks, worn by almost constant application to duty for days past, and with little respite gained by the Saturday afternoon and Sunday intermission breasted the great tide of buying and selling orders with philosophical resignation… Curiosity seemed to prompt attendance of the greater part of the milling throngs in the board rooms." (The Seattle Times, October 29, 1929)

By the end of November, investors had lost $100 billion in assets in what was later called "The Great Stock Market Crash." In just two months, September and October, the stock market had lost 40 percent of its value. Black Tuesday usually marks the point where the Roaring 20’s ended and the Great Depression started. The stock market would continue to fall until bottoming out in July of 1932 with the Dow at 41.22, down 89.2% (from 381.17 to 41.22. The stock market wouldn’t recover for another 22 years!