The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 89% from its 1929 peak to its 1932 low during the Great Crash.
The Dow peaked at 381.17 on September 3, 1929. After a series of sharp declines, it reached 41.22 on July 8, 1932. The fall from peak to trough was approximately 89.2%, making it one of the deepest collapses in the history of the major U.S. stock indexes.
The crash itself occurred in 1929, but the market did not reach its lowest point until nearly three years later. The decline overlapped with the early Great Depression, although historians generally distinguish the stock-market crash from the broader economic crisis.
A common mix-up is confusing the total peak-to-trough loss with the percentage lost on a single day. October 29, 1929, was the climactic selling day, but the overall decline continued long afterward. The Dow eventually recovered its pre-crash closing high in November 1954.