Monday, October 13, 2008

Don't Buy Champagne Yet

Watching the stock market go up today by 11% was fun for me too. Just don't bet the crash is over.

The initial market crash of 1929 hit on October 24. On October 30, the market rose an astonishing 12%. Everyone believed the worst was over. By November 6 the market was testing its low of October 29 and fell through them. It hit a bottom on November 12, having lost 22% from the October 30 rally.

That low was not reached again for nearly a year when it was breached on October 9, 1930. From there it continued to decline, with the occasional rally, until it hit its true bottom on July 9, 1932. The Dow did not regain its high reached on September 3, 1929 (381.17) for 26 years, in 1955.

It is nice to pretend that this is the bottom but stock market trends just don't swing this quickly.

DOW JONES History
10/23/29 - - 320.91 -day before crash
10/24/29 - - 299.47 -Black Thursday
10/29/29 - - 230.07 -day before rally
10/30/29 - - 259.47 -first rally
11/06/29 - - 236.53 -one week later
11/12/29 - - 198.62 -two weeks later
07/09/32 - - +41.22 -the bottom

2 comments:

SplendidMarbles said...

Nice commentary. I've been writing about the market drama for a while now. It's nice to see some historical perspective. I don't think a true bottom will be found until later next year. I'm a cartoonist as well; you might like the I posted today about the global banking rescue. My site is www.splendidmarbles.com
Cheers.

Anonymous said...

The drama continues. Thinks will eventually correct and the rebuilding can begin. The volitity of the market in general has most on the sidelines.

Prosit !!
Steve