re: reach for the sky bulls were dancin round back here too...

re: reach for the sky bulls were dancin round back here too

Timeline: The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a high of 381.17 on September 3, 1929. On Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, the stock market suffered its first one-day crash. A then-record of 13 million shares were traded that day.

At 1:00pm on Black Thursday, several leading Wall Street bankers met to find a solution to the panic and chaos on the trading floor. The group included Thomas W. Lamont, acting head of Morgan Bank; Albert Wiggin head of the Chase National Bank; and Charles E. Mitchell, president of National City Bank. They chose Richard Whitney, vice president of the Exchange, to act on their behalf. With the bankers' financial resources behind him, Whitney placed a bid to purchase a large block of shares in U.S. Steel at a price well above the current market. As amazed traders watched, Whitney then placed similar bids on other "blue-chip" stocks. This tactic was similar to a tactic that ended the Panic of 1907, and succeeded in halting the slide that day. In this case, however, the respite was only temporary.