About how many NYSE shares traded on Black Tuesday in 1929?
Answer
16.4 million
About 16.4 million NYSE shares traded on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929.
Black Tuesday produced the highest trading volume of the Wall Street crash. Panic selling swept across the New York Stock Exchange as investors rushed to liquidate shares, often because falling prices triggered margin calls. The flood of orders overwhelmed the market’s systems and kept the ticker tape reporting trades long after the exchange closed.
The 16.4-million-share figure is commonly contrasted with Black Thursday, October 24, when about 12.9 million shares traded. Both figures were extraordinary for the period, but Black Tuesday represented the climax of the October panic. Roughly $14 billion in stock value disappeared that day.
The volume number is an estimate commonly reported as “some 16 million” or 16.4 million shares, so the question’s “about how many” wording is appropriate. It should not be confused with the Dow’s point loss: the index fell 30.57 points and closed at 230.07.