WhyItDropped

Nasdaq · July 5, 2002

A short bounce between holidays

+4.94%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Nine months when the books could not be trusted

midway through · 2002-01-04 → 2002-10-09, -45.90% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • The Nasdaq rose 4.94% on the day
  • It was the day after Independence Day, a thin half-length session. With few participants, small orders move prices a lot
  • There was no particular news; it was a give-back after two weeks of heavy falls
  • The Nasdaq alternated between heavy falls and heavy gains in this period. With the accounting distrust unresolved, no direction held
  • Bounces like this came repeatedly through the summer and every one led to a lower low
  • The bottom came three months later, on 9 October

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.