Remembering 9/11/2001

On September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. shook the entire trading community to its core. Traders watched with horror as events started to unfold between 9:00 and 9:15 am. Everyone was stunned from the fact that what initially appeared to be an accident soon became an apparent sinister attack.

The New York Stock Exchange was evacuated at 9:25 am, without any announcement about trading. In Toronto, the market opened at 9:30 am and immediately went into a free fall. Buyers were pulling their orders and sellers were dumping at whatever bids existed. At 11:30 am, the TSE finally closed the markets.

On September 17, the U.S. markets suffered a huge sell-off. The Dow Jones lost 685 points. However, its 7.1% drop was less than the 22.5% plunge on October 19, 1987. NASDAQ fell 116 points, or 6.8%. On the other hand, the TSE closed up 17 points, after a 6.5% decline in the week of 9/11 while the U.S. markets were closed.

- With help from Fred Ketchen & John Manna