Stock prices are based on the perceived value of the company or investment they represent. By 1932, the index of stock prices had fallen from a 1929 high of 210 to a low of 30. Stocks were valued at just 12 percent of what they had been worth in September 1929. Stock marketing crashes occur because of a complex network of reasons including external economic factors as well as psychological crowd behavior, either of which can trigger the other into inducing a crash.
There is no numerically specific definition of a crash but the term commonly applies to steep double-digit percentage losses in a stock market index over a period of several days. October 24 (known as Black Thursday) was the first in a number of increasingly shocking market drops. We are told, over and over, that the free market is a sort of natural wonder that guides the economy …