MARKET CRASH

On Oct. 29, 1929, the Toronto Stock Exchange suffered the worst trading day in its history,

The figures spewing from ticker machines on October 29, 1929, stunned thousands of Torontonians gathered at the city’s brokerage offices into hushed, tearful silence.

One Toronto man even fainted. He was quickly dragged into the back of a brokerage office and left to recover — on his own — while his companions rushed back to the stock board to watch their investments evaporate. On the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) trading floor, the chaos was likened by the Star to the Battle for Bull Run, “with the scampering for cover and finding no cover.”

Amob shoved its way onto the trading floor — so vast, the TSX building’s doors couldn’t close — adding their voices to those of the men on the floor desperately trying to sell stocks. Sellers flooded ticket kiosks as trading opened, brokers shrieked down phone lines and tickers lagged behind trading by at least an hour. Within a half-hour of the opening bell, “Black Tuesday” became the worst trading day in the history of both the TSX and the Standard Stock and Mining Exchange (SSME).

“Losses have been enormous and fortunes wiped out overnight. Individuals who were rated millionaires one day are almost paupers today,” the Star reported. Sixteen companies listed on the TSX had over $1 million shaved off record highs for 1929. Markets in the 20s were so prosperous, buyers typically paid only about 10 to 15 per cent of a stock’s worth up front. But world markets in 1929 were becoming volatile — and investors in late October began trying to sell their stocks en-masse.