Silver Thursday marked the collapse of the Hunt brothers’ attempt to corner the silver market on March 27, 1980.
Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt had accumulated enormous silver positions, helping drive the metal’s price to nearly $50 per troy ounce in January 1980. Their strategy relied heavily on borrowed money and expectations that silver would continue rising.
Exchange rule changes increased margin requirements and restricted new purchases. When the Hunts could not meet a margin call, silver prices plunged on Silver Thursday. The crisis threatened financial institutions that had lent money against the positions, although emergency credit arrangements helped prevent a wider financial breakdown.
Silver Thursday was primarily a commodities and leveraged-finance crisis rather than a conventional stock-market crash. It is included in market-crash histories because the forced liquidation shook financial markets and demonstrated the dangers of concentrated speculation and debt.