Washington and Lee Law Review Volume 45 | Issue 3 Article 5 Summer 6-1-1988 Program Trading-A Critical Analysis Janet E. Kerr John C. Maguire Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr Part of the Securities Law Commons Recommended Citation Janet E. Kerr and John C. Maguire, Program Trading-A Critical Analysis, 45 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 991 (1988), https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol45/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington and Lee Law Review at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington and Lee Law Review by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. PROGRAM TRADING-A CRITICAL ANALYSIS JAJET E. KERR* JOHN C. MAGUIRE" INTRODUCTION "Black Monday," October 19, 1987, sent many financial experts and investors reeling back to October 28, 1929. Almost fifty-eight years to the day after the first great crash, "Black Monday" saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)l plummet 508.32 points in a single day. 2 The DJIA lost approximately $500 billion of value. This precipitous drop in the stock market greatly exceeded the fall on October 28, 1929, by 22.6% to 12.8%, 4 that led to the "Great Depression." In the wake of its devastation, members of Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Self-Regulatory Organizations (SRO),5 commentators, and market participants alike are deeply divided over the "cause" and the effect of this market crash.