Nasdaq · March 27, 1980
Silver Thursday
-6.15%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
Credit controls and Silver Thursday
near the end of it · 1980-02-08 → 1980-03-27, -24.91% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- 27 March 1980 — Nasdaq Composite fell 6.15%. The day is known as Silver Thursday, when the silver price collapsed in one session
- A group of investors had bought silver with heavy borrowing and driven the price up
- When exchanges changed the rules and interest rates rose, the position failed → covering the shortfall meant selling other assets
- That's why equities shook. A large loss in one market forces sales in another to cover it
- Different asset classes are connected through the same investors' balance sheets
- Fell 24.91% from peak. This was also a period of high inflation and high interest rates
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.