Theos-Talk Archives (July 2002 Message tt00075)

--- Bart Lidofsky <bartl@sprynet.com> wrote:
> It was an artificial dip, caused by too many people
> (especially large
> not-for-profits) using the relatively new and not
> perfected method of
> programmed trades. Essentially, automatic sell
> orders were given for
> stocks when they went below a certain point. A
> normal dip caused
> computers to "panic sell", creating the crash (the
> bond market, on the
> same day, was at a major high point).

There was a lot of human panic selling as well. 
Hospitals were shut down and telephone systems stopped
working altogether as physicians and other wealthy
professionals called their brokers trying to close
their positions.

It has also been estimated that 45% of all daily
activity on the NASDAQ in 2002 is just automated
computerized trading.

There was more scandal in 1987 than there is today. 
And yet this panic is not going away. People have
started biddinh up the price of each others' houses
the way they did in the late seventies, creating
another real estate bubble.


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