Nasdaq · April 10, 2000
The day borrowed money began to unwind
-5.81%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The eleven weeks when the bubble first broke
midway through · 2000-03-10 → 2000-05-23, -37.32% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- The Nasdaq fell 5.81% on the day
- Borrowing by individual investors to buy shares had reached a record around this time
- Shares bought with borrowed money are sold automatically when prices fall and collateral runs short. The selling pushes prices down further, which forces more selling
- This structure makes a decline feed itself. The supply comes from account mechanics, not from judgement
- Four days later, 14 April, closed that week and was its heaviest fall
- Nearly a quarter of the index vanished in that week alone
Sources
Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is written from the sources listed above.