Monday 28 October 2013

October 1987 / October 2013



 A thought crossing my mind today was to think back to the last time a huge storm hit Southern England. Once that had far more impact than today. That storm was in 1987. Also that month as well as the horrific weather we saw the Great Crash of Black Monday, which as a week before the storm. Although the great crash was a huge event, it did not spark off a huge recession in the way that the financial crash of 2008 did.

 The markets were toppy at the time after years of unfettered growth from the mid-eighties and the prevalence of a new product called mortgage backed securities that had accessed new cash flows for investors. Still, by numbers it was a huge fall, as October crashes often are. Also it was out of the blue, which is what makes it stick in so many peoples memories.

Even if we had a big run on the FTSE now, there would be a more resigned air to it by market participants - there are just too many known dangers for people to be worried about right now. Still, only a couple of days left in October and then we can head into the annual run up to Christmas which should see market drift up towards year highs from where we are placed.

4 comments:

Electro-Kevin said...

The morning of the 1987 storm I was asleep in my section house room in Golden Lane (Barbican.) A bang on my bedroom door. The lights had failed - a copper with an Ever Ready shining in my face "All Hell's broken loose. You're needed down the nick."

That was the purpose of the section house - a ready reserve of coppers for such emergencies.

Half an hour later I was out there in my greatcoat with radio and riot helmet sit-repping from a doorway in Cheapside.

What I saw was unbelievable. Scaffold collapses, windows blown it, trees split asunder - sheet steel hurtling end over end at about 80mph.

Putting anyone out in that was idiotic.

Blue Eyes said...

I went to school that morning. It was terribly unfair because my older brother's school had closed, but mine had not.

I watched things flying around through the window. We weren't allowed to go outside at break time.

Anonymous said...

From memory, Black Monday was AFTER the storm, *checks Google*

Yes, AFTER.

Botogol said...

The storm was Thursday night
I was working at JPMorgan
I went to work on the Friday, because we were putting a bond trading system live that weekend, I also went to work on the Saturday and Sunday
On the Monday the system was live, first day of trading. It was not a calm day!
I remember it all well