It all began on Thursday, October 24, 1929. 12,894,650 shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange – a record. To put this number in perspective, let's go back a bit to March 12, 1928, when a record for business activity was set at that time. A total of 3,875,910 shares were traded that day. As you can see, Wall Street was a very, very busy place, as were markets around the world. A big problem so far unmentioned in all of this has been communication. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The teletype recorder has gone through great amounts of refinements since its first applications in the 1970s and 1980s by Edison and others. Even at telegraph speed, volume affected time. The problems were an hour or an hour and a half behind on the tape. The phones were just busy signals on hooks. He was having crowds gather outside the NYSE trying to get into the communication. It was necessary to call the police to control the strangest rioting masses; business investors. It's not midday yet. The lunch habit eased the panic a bit and New York stopped to catch its breath. There were rumors of deals coming in the afternoon, so maybe something could be salvaged. And he managed to recover most of his losses. For example, a stock like Montgomery-Ward opened at 83, fell to 50, and recovered to 74. This was typical of large companies. On Friday, the mix of margin call deals combined with pending selling from late tickers on Thursday led to a slight gain. Trading volume was approximately 6 million shares. There was a short session on Saturday that brought everything back to Thursday's levels. The weekend was truly a welcome relief. It gave investors a chance to sort out their portfolios and plan for what could be a tough week. Others, however, had cleverly planned the collapse and kept the money out and were ready to do some real business. They set themselves up for even worse ruin. On Monday, October 28, 1929, the volume was enormous: over 9,250,000 shares traded. The losses were also great. But unlike Thursday, there was no dramatic recovery; it was the prelude to Black Tuesday, the most infamous day in the history of Wall Street. There is a reckoning that occurs every now and then in the history of the world. It is the time when debts are paid, when wars are fought, when disease ravages and sweeps through a land, when corn does not grow as it once did, or when the forces of nature itself deliver a brief, catastrophic blow. Keep in mind: This is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay On Black Tuesday came the reckoning of several boom years, based largely on credit. That day the shares traded would have been 16,410,030. People were selling their stocks and causing even more downward pressure on the market. There were despondent stockbrokers, tearfully trying desperately to connect with clients to get a margin. This time, panic selling ensured, once and for all, that there was no quick fix and that the recovery would be slow and painful. There was nowhere near the earnings recovery seen on Thursday. The Dow Jones closed at $230, down 23% from its opening of $299. The market had collapsed.