Key Figures of Black Monday 1987
Alan Greenspan
Just weeks into his term as Federal Reserve Chair, Greenspan issued a statement affirming the Fed's readiness to provide liquidity — an early test of his tenure that helped stabilize markets and set a template for crisis communication used in later downturns.
Portfolio Insurance Traders
Institutional investors using computerized "portfolio insurance" strategies, designed to automatically sell as prices fell, are widely believed to have amplified the crash by triggering cascading waves of automated selling.