Enron traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ENE, and later under the symbol ENRN when it traded on the NASDAQ.
Shares of Enron stock reached their highest price on August 23rd, 2000 when shares reached a price of $90.75! The high share price gave Enron a market cap of about $70 billion, enough to make it the 7th largest publicly traded company.
[continue reading…]As we build out our ‘This Day in Stock Market History’ archive, I like to periodically take an in depth look at notable events in history. Today’s post comes at the anniversary of the IPO of one of the most infamous dot-com names. [continue reading…]
“If the efficient market hypothesis is true – and the Challenger explosion example certainly implies it is – The wisdom of crowds has enormously far reaching consequences.”
-Andrew Lo, from his book Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought
As we build out our ‘This Day in Stock Market History‘ archives, I like to go into more detail on events that I believe offer important lessons for investors, had significant historical impact, or events that are just simply interesting.
This week in history, on January 28th, 1986, an event occurred that meets all three of these criteria – The stock market’s behavior after the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle.
[continue reading…]Another day and another round of the #impeachment headline trending:
This was the clearest evidence yet of impeachment risk hitting the market.
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) September 24, 2019
Today’s situation is not a direct comparison with Nixon and Watergate. But let’s say this gets as bad as Watergate and cover ups exist all the way up the ladder at the White House, what can investors expect to happen?
From the beginning of the Watergate scandal to a few weeks after Nixon’s resignation, U.S. stocks markets fell more than 40%.
It is easy to forget after 40+ years, but Watergate took a long time to play out. Here’s a quick bullet point timeline of the big events of the Watergate scandal, along with where the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded at the time:
It was more than 2 years between the break-in at the Watergate complex and Nixon’s resignation.
It is important to note that there was a lot going on at this time. The OPEC oil embargo occurred at the end of 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, and inflation was beginning to get out of control. More than likely all of these events led to the stock market’s decline during this time. How much would the markets have gone down without the oil embargo, war or inflation? There is really no way to know.
[continue reading…]
Every once in a while, I like to take a closer look at an event that comes up in our “This Day in History” archive, which gets posted daily on Facebook, Twitter, and is now available as an Amazon Flash Briefing.
Today we look into the life of Peter Lynch, whose birthday is this week, and who is one of the most successful mutual fund managers in history.
What did Peter Lynch look for in an investment, and what stocks would Peter Lynch buy today?
We’ll look at these in more detail below, and a list of companies that meet all of these criteria – but first a quick look at Lynch’s historic run as a mutual fund manager:
Exciting news! In addition to getting our ‘This Day in Stock Market History’ posts on Facebook and Twitter, it is now available as an Amazon flash briefing skill also. Here’s an example of what to expect: [continue reading…]
This week marks the anniversary of, at the time, the largest bankruptcy in American history and the conclusion of the largest case of accounting fraud in history. *
WorldCom declared bankruptcy July 21st, 2002 with $107 billion in assets.
How did this fraud develop? How was the WorldCom scandal discovered? How did WorldCom investors fare? [continue reading…]
After hearing one too many comments from rational economists talking heads about how Hillary Clinton will “destroy small business” (and the stock market) or Donald Trump would “destroy America” (and the stock market) I thought it would be interesting to see how the stock market performed under various presidents in history. Before looking below, lets do a quick test. Who would you consider to be among the top few Presidents since 1897 (when this info-graphic starts)? How about the bottom few?
As the election wears on and rhetoric heats up, I see more and more political bias affecting investor behavior. So before you sell all your stocks once you see Hillary or Trump get elected, look below:
How did your picks actually perform?
This Day in History
1893 – National Cordage Company declares bankruptcy after a failed attempt to corner the hemp market. At the time, National Cordage was the most traded stock and the selloff of shares quickly spread across the market. National Cordage was assumed to be a healthy, prosperous company, so it’s failure was a surprise to Wall Street. The stock opened at 39 but fell to 20 and the general market dropped in panic as well. General Electric fell from 88.5 to 79.5 (a decline of about 10%), Union Pacific railway fell equally, from 34 3/8 to 31 7/8. The fear would spread into the next day, May 5th 1893 which would become the worst day in stock market history, and remain so until 1929. Sources: New York Tribune May 5, 1893 page 1, The Evening Star May 5 1893 page 1 and Panic, Prosperity and Progress
The Panic of 1893 would turn into one of the worst economic depressions in the nations history. 14,000 business would close and unemployment would rise to 20%. The depression would last 4 years before the country began to recover.
1906 – Up 3.04% or 1.93 points.
1970 – Down 2.60%, or 19.07 points.
Image of the Day
The panic of 1893 would lead to massive strikes, marches on the capital, mass unemployment and stock market declines. The panic would produce what would become the worst economic depression in history, and remain so until 1929.
Quote of the Day
“I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” – Iasac Newton
1720 – Iasac Newton sells his shares in South Sea Company for a profit of 100%, or about 7,000 pounds. However he couldn’t resist the urge to make more when soon after he would buy back into the South Sea Company Stock and eventually lose 20,000 pounds, leading Newton to state: “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” – Source: Manias, Panics and Crashes
1933 – U.S. stocks continue their rally after the U.S. officially abandons the gold standard the day before. After a rise of 9% on the 19th, April 20th the Dow rises another 5.8% – Source: It Was A Very Good Year
1933 – Up 5.80%, or 5.66 points
2009 – Down 3.56% or 289.6 points
This Day in History
1915 – Bethlehem Steel vaults from $88 to $117 per share, part of a 10 day rise that would see its share price rise 70 points. The World War 1 boom is underway. (Source: It Was A Very Good Year
Best April 9th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1938 – Up 5.25%, +5.75 points
Worst April 9th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1943 – Down 3.17%, -4.30 points
Best April 9th in S&P 500 History
2009 – Up 3.81%
Worst April 9th in S&P 500 History
1987 – Down 1.48%
This Day in History
April 8th, 1940 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 151.29, which would come to represent the market’s peak prior to World War 2. The Dow Jones Industiral Average would hit a WW2 low of 92.92 on April 28th 1942. The Dow would not close above 151.29 until December 29th 1944. (Source: The Market’s Measure
Best April 8th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1938 – Up 3.93%, +4.14 points
Worst April 8th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1932 – Down 4.98%, -3.30 points
Best April 8th in S&P 500 History
1986 – Up 2.14%
Worst April 8th in S&P 500 History
1996 – Down 1.77%
Quote of the Day
“By the end of the first day of trading, some 2.5 million shares had changed hands, and the price of Microsoft’s stock stood at $27.75. The opportunity to take a quick profit was too great for many institutional investors to resist. Over the next few weeks they sold off roughly half their shares.” – Fortune on the Microsoft IPO
After making a quick 40%, almost half of the original shares purchased at the IPO were sold. Over the next 30 years Microsoft stock would rise another 75,000%!
This Day in History
1907 – The Panic of 1907 is still a few months away, but cracks are appearing in the confidence investors have in American companies. Stocks break lower, led by the once coveted railroads. The Dow Railroad index falls from 112.53 to 107.52. (Source: It was a very good year
1986 – Microsoft Corp (Ticker: MSFT) goes public with an initial offering price of $21 per share ($0.07 today adjusted for splits and dividends). Every $100 invested at its IPO is worth a little more than $75,000.
Best March 13th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
2003 – Up 3.57% or 269.68 points
Worst March 13th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1907 – Down 3.94% or 2.48 points
Best March 13th in S&P 500 History
2003 – Up 3.45%, 27.71 points
Worst March 13th in S&P 500 History
2007 – Down 2.04%
Picture of the Day
Bill Gates was on the cover of Fortune Magazine after the successful IPO of Microsoft. The original article published July 21st 1986 can be found here.
This Day in History – March 4th
March 4th, 1957 – The S&P 500 index is introduced. Although Standard and Poors introduced its first stock index in 1923, today marks the anniversary of the S&P 500 index as we know it today. It closed the day at 44.06.
Best March 4th in S&P 500 History:
2009 – Up 2.38%
Worst March 4th in S&P 500 History:
2003 – Down 1.54%
Best March 4th in Dow Jones Industrials History:
1926 – Up 4.38 %, or 6.32 points
Worst March 4th in Dow Jones Industrials History:
1897 – Down 1.88% or .57 points
Chart of the Day
The S&P 500 since its creation in 1957:
Since March 4th 1957 the S&P 500 has returned 4424%, not counting dividends.
Or, a compounded annual growth rate of 6.67%, not counting dividends. [continue reading…]
Quote of the Day
”I’ve thought the whole thing over, and if we are going bust, we will go bust big.”
– Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel on his plan to build a new steel mill to produce steel beams in the shape on an “H”. The design would later turn into the “I” Beam.
Hence, the company’s logo:
This Day in Stock Market History
February 18th 1862 – Birthday of Charles M. Schwab (2/18/1862 – 9/18/1939)
American entrepreneur who started his career with Carnegie’s steelworks and who later pioneered Bethlehem Steel. ( He is unrelated to the Charles W Schwab of the brokerage today.)
The company would become a major name on Wall Street as WW1 and WW2 produced massive steel orders. One such run up is featured in the book “It Was a Very Good Year
With his leadership Bethlehem steel would become the second largest steel company in the world, and his idea of the “H” Beam would revolutionize the building of skyscrapers.
He would amass a wealth of nearly a billion dollars (adjusted for inflation), before dying in debt in 1939. He was an avid gambler, was known for his extravagant parties and extra-marital affairs.
A great, short biography of Schwab is available here.
Best February 18th in S&P 500 History:
2003 – Up 1.95% or 16.28 points
Quote of the Day
Once in the dear dead days beyond recall, an out-of-town visitor was being shown the wonders of the New York Financial District. When the party arrived at the battery, one of his guides indicated some handsome ships riding at anchor. He said,
“Look, those are the bankers’ and brokers’ yachts.”
“Where are the customer’s yachts?” asked the naive visitor.
-Opening to Where are the Customers’ Yachts
This Day in History
1977 – Blue Chip Stamps, with Charlie Munger as chairman and Warren Buffett as principal shareholder purchases the Buffalo Evening Newspaper – Entering Buffett into the newspaper business.
Buffett and Munger paid $35.5 million for the paper, which was their biggest purchase ever at that time. The history of Buffett and the Buffalo Evening Newspaper is an interesting one – it takes up a whole chapter in Alice Schroeder’s biography on Buffett: The Snowball
Initially, the paper was the most read local paper in Buffalo, but after a court case and managerial trouble, the newspaper began to quickly lose money, $1.4 million by November 1977. But things would slowly turn around and by 1983 the paper was making more than $19 million a year.
2000 – Total trading volume for the day on NASDAQ tops 2 billion shares for the first time, as 2,008,438,100 shares change hands and the NASDAQ Composite Index closes above 4500 for the first time, finishing the day at 4548.92.
Best February 17th in S&P 500 History:
1987 – up 2.07%
Worst February 17th in S&P 500 History:
2009 – down 4.56%
Best February 17th in Dow Jones Industrials History:
1987 – up 2.48%, or 54.14 points
Worst February 17th in Dow Jones Industrials History:
1932 – down 4.09%, or 3.51 points
Picture of the Day [continue reading…]
Quote of the Day:
Buffett on Romance:
This Day in History:
1933 –
At 1:32 AM on a Tuesday morning, Governor William Comstock of Michigan declares a 8 day banking holiday as Michigan banks struggle to remain open. In the midst of the great depression banks nationwide were stressed, but Michigan was hit particularly hard by the great depression. After failed negotiations with Henry Ford for help, the governor was forced to declare a banking holiday to prevent defaults. However the banks would not open in just 8 days. Banks in many other states were not in any better condition than those in Michigan. By early March, 36 states had banking operations suspended.
Then on March 6th, just 36 hours after being sworn into office, President Roosevelt declared a week long national bank holiday. Over the next week panic would subdue and with the help of legislation from congress, the worst of the bank runs would be over.
Image of the Day [continue reading…]
