Dr. Jack Wheeler
February 9, 2018
This is the North Face of Mount Everest in Tibet. I took this picture on October 29, 1987, alongside a small group of friends. We had just finished crossing the entire Chang Tang Plateau of Northern Tibet. We stood silently, filled with awe and reverence for the privilege of being here.
An indescribably deep calm swept over us as we witnessed one of the most magnificent sights in all the world – the world’s highest mountain turn pink in the setting sun – and no one was calmer than Big John Perrott.
For we had been in the Chang Tang – once of the remotest places on our planet – on October 19 when we heard the BBC report on our shortwave radio that the US and global stock markets had collapsed.
It was Black Monday, October 19, 1987, when the Dow suffered the single largest one-day percentage drop in its history: 22.61%, losing 508 points from 2246 to 1738.
Big John collapsed emotionally. “I’m ruined! I’ve lost everything – all my life savings have been wiped out!” he exclaimed in anguish. There was nothing he could do. There was no way whatever we could communicate with the outside world. “If I could just have reached my broker in time to sell before the markets crash even lower, I’d at least have something left!” he lamented bitterly.
By the time we had reached Everest ten days later, our little shortwave radio told us that the markets were rebounding. Black Monday had been a trading event, not a fundamental or economic one. “Jack,” Big John told me, “I’ll always be grateful that I was in the middle of Tibet when this happened and couldn’t do anything. My panic would have been my downfall back home.”
Big John today is a TTPer well known on the Forum. Perhaps he’ll comment on the relief he was feeling as he was looking at that Everest sunset. TTPer Joel Wade was with me as well – perhaps he’ll reminisce on the Forum too.
There’s a clear lesson here to apply to the Dow this week. It’s been quite a week. Here we go…
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