Flashback Friday

20 years ago today the financial markets saw the largest one-day percentage decline in Dow Jones history, aka Black Monday. I can still remember where I was when I heard the news. I was sitting in the gym of Washington Catholic High School in Washington, Indiana watching the basketball team practice and I can remember Peter Jennings delivering the news and looking shell shocked.

That was my first experience of investing in the markets and I saw a hugh part of my capital disappear that day. It was a great lesson to learn early on and it got me even more interested in the financial markets. It was also around this time I discovered Lou Dobbs of Moneyline and got hooked on watching my daily dose of financial news.

To me Black Monday seems like yesterday and I’m sure most people probably don’t even know where they were. It got me to think about other events that I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news:
– Death of Princess Diana (Aug 31, 1997) – just paid the parking attendant and heading to a club in Georgetown DC
– 9/11 – getting ready to head to the office, once i got to the office I realized how massive the attack was
– Space Shuttle Challenger explosion (Jan 28, 1986) – In a mall, it also happened to be the day I became a US Citizen