Stock Market Crash of 1929 Essay

By the end of the 1920's the Stock Market was flourishing. In 1928 the New York Stock Exchange was trading at about six to seven million shares a day. Many economists warned about the dangers of rising prices. People disregarded this information and speculation increased about the Stock Market being the easy way to make money. People invested their life's savings. Banks too invested large sums of money into the Stock Market.

During the 1920's millions of Americans began investing in stocks for the first time. They heard about how rich people were getting by investing so they all decided to do it. Many new investors entered the stock market using borrowed money. Stock market prices rose steadily as inflated market demand outpaced increases in the capital value of businesses. Investors began to realize that a large imbalance existed between stock prices and the amount of money needed to back them up, and began to sell. On October 29, 1929, great numbers of people tried to sell their stocks all at once. This created chaos in the accounting of stocks and for brokers. The New York Stock Exchange and other exchanges prices dropped so dramatically that this event became known as the crash of 1929. Millions of investors lost their savings in the crash and many were deeply in debt since

Many people believe the Stock Market crash and the Great Depression are one in the same. In the nineteen twenties the Dow Jones went from sixty to four hundred. People became instant millionaires. Trading became America’s favorite pastime and a quick way to get rich. There were Americans mortgaging their home and investing their life savings in stock such as ford. However, there were many fake companies that formed to deceive the inexperience investors. Many investors did not believe that a crash was possible; they all thought the market would always go up.

During the 1920s Wall Street was representing the decade of expanding economic opportunity for every American. During 1927 some American banks failed due to bad investments and low prices for agricultural products. On Thursday October 1929 American stock market failed and millions of investors are plunged into bankruptcy. Over 12,894,650 shares changed hands, many at fire. About two months after the crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. The slump was made worse by the share-buying fever that infected the country in the 1920s. Everyone wanted to make quick fortunes, therefore they bought company shares on margin. Competitive buying of the shares drove share prices high above their actual value. Then, when cautious

Sadly, that time of prosperity would not last long. In October of 1929, the stock market

The US stock market crashed on October 24, the DJIA dropped 21%, and it crashed even worse 5 days later Tuesday

Many people lost as much as ten times their initial investment, which shook consumer confidence. In an effort to cover their margins, people rushed the banks in masses, demanding their money. Soon, banks began to run out of cash and went bust.

economy, people began buying stocks on the margin. They would borrow most of the stock’s price from a stockbroker and only pay a little bit of the price. If the stock prices kept rising, this system would work well, but if the prices fell, people could not pay the loan back. Near the end of the 1929 year, prices were too high, so people wanted to sell their stocks. They thought the prices would lower soon. Stock prices did go lower and people were not buying. They all wanted to sell their stocks. Prices went even lower on October 29, where 16 million stocks were sold. This caused the collapse of the market.

In the 1920s, American economy had a great time. The vast majority of Americans in 1929 foresaw a continuation of the dizzying economic growth that had taken place in most of the decade. However, the prices of stock crested in early September of 1929. The price of stock fell gradually during most of September and early October. On “Black Tuesday” 29 October 1929, the stock market fell by forty points. After that, a historically great and long economic depression started and lasted until the start of the Second World War. The three causes of the Great Depression are installment buying, uneven distribution of wealth and the irrational behavior in the stock market.

On October 29, 1929, investors took a turn for the worse and were just in the beginning of a huge crisis that would cause them to lose everything. This crash pushed many Americans to depression, suicide, and destruction. By 1933, 4,000 banks had closed and Americans started to panic. The stock market crash of 1929 was a major turning point in the history of the United States and billions of dollars were lost.

Everyone started pouring their money into all types of stocks . As a result, the stock market underwent fast expansion and reached its peak in August 1929. On October 24, 1929, investors began selling overpriced stocks and caused the market to become corrupt and the market crashed, which was everyones worry. About 12.9 million shares of stocks ended and became worth nothing.

“Stocks began to decline in early september 1929, on October 24th prices fell as investors unloaded their stocks.” (Cliffnotes.com)

The average stock price tripled from 1925 to 1929. However, the stock market took a definite change of direction on October 24, 1929 when a record 16,410,030 shares were sold. This abrupt stock market crash led to the next decade, known as the Great Depression (“Roaring Twenties”).

Economists say that the day that the market actually peaked was on September 3, 1929. On this day the Dow was up 27% from the year before, but this high did not last long. Over the course of a few weeks the prices fell and did not slow down. On October 23, 1929, also known as Black Thursday, within the last hour of trading the stock prices “suddenly plummeted” (Suddath). By the time the market closed at 3 p.m. “people [investors] were shaken” (Suddath), they didn’t know what happened. Throughout the rest of the day “fear and panic set in”, and upon opening the next morning prices began to plunge downward. Over thirteen million shares changed hands that day which caused the ticker tape to run until four hours after closing. The next day, Friday, October 25, there was a meeting held by some of the nation’s largest bankers to decide what they could do to help the situation. They all decided to purchase shares of U.S. Steel above market price. Tactics like this had worked in previous stock market scares but this time they were unsuccessful. However, this move did

Tons of people saw the stocks falling, literally. People were trying to hurry and get rid of their stocks they bought to try and save some of their money. When more and more people were getting rid of their stocks it just made the situation worst. J.P. Morgan tried to save the economy by putting billions of dollars in certain banks.