With the recent historic volatility in the stock market I thought it could give some perspective to look at both the largest point drops on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in history along with the largest percentage drops in history.
Points are not the same as percentage as the Dow Jones is higher the points are less on a percentage basis. A 100 point Dow drop when the Dow was 10,000 would be a -1% drop on the index. With the Dow at 25,000 a 100 point drop is only a -0.4% drop and it takes a 250 point drop to equal 1% at the higher level.
At 10,000 a DJIA 1% drop is 100 points.
At 15,000 a DJIA 1% drop is 150 points.
At 20,000 a DJIA 1% drop is 200 points.
At 25,000 a DJIA 1% drop is 250 points.
It is important to keep this historical perspective in terms of percentage not points to see these moves clearly.
Here are the 10 biggest point losses in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
3-12-2020 -2,352.60 points -9.99%
3-09-2020 −2,013.76 points −7.79%
2-27-2020 −1,190.95 point −4.42%
2-05-2018 −1,175.21 points−4.60%
2-08-2018 −1,032.89 points −4.15%
2-24-2020 −1,031.61 points −3.56%
3-05-2020 −969.58 points −3.58%
2-25-2020 −879.44 points −3.15%
10-10-2018 −831.83 points −3.15%
8-14-2019 −800.49 points −3.05%
Here are the 10 biggest percentage losses in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
10-19-1987 −508.00 points −22.61%
10-28-1929 −38.33 points −12.82%
10-29-1929 −30.57 points −11.73%
3-12-2020 -2,352.60 points -9.99%
11-06-1929 −25.55 points −9.92%
12-18-1899 −5.57 points −8.72%
8-12-1932 −5.79 points −8.40%
3-14-1907 −6.89 points −8.29%
10-26-1987 −156.83 points −8.04%
10-15-2008 −733.08 points −7.87%
7-21-1933 −7.55 points −7.84%
March 9, 2020 was the biggest point drop ever on the DJIA but was not in the top ten of all time drops on a percentage basis. It was the eleventh biggest percentage drop on the DJIA in history and only the Great Depression, the 1987 crash, and 2008 had biggest percentage drops.
Historical times but it is important to keep the point moves in historical perspective to not get emotional carried away.
