Wall Street Crash of 1929

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/wall-street-crash-of-1929

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary venue of market activity?New York Stock Exchange, located on Wall Street, New York City, USA
2. What is the dates of peak market instability?October 24, 1929 (Black Thursday) and October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday)
3. What was the Great Stock Market Tumble of 1929?The Great Stock Market Tumble of 1929 was a huge drop in the prices of many companies’ stocks in the United States. It happened in October 1929 and made many people lose a lot of money. The crash also started a long period of economic hardship called the Great Depression.
4. Why did the stock prices go so high before the crash?Stock prices went very high because many people were excited and believed the market would keep rising. They bought many shares, sometimes using borrowed money, which pushed prices up even though the companies were not worth that much.

Financial Leverage: The use of borrowed money to increase the potential return on an investment.
Margin Call: A demand from a broker for an investor to deposit additional money or securities to cover potential losses.
Systemic Risk: The risk that the failure of one financial institution could trigger a cascade of failures throughout the entire system.