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The Dot Com Bubble Burst That Caused The 2000 Stock Market Crash

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Thomas DeGrace

The Dot-Com Bubble Burst is what caused the 2000 stock market crash.  The years 1992-2000 were favorable for the stock market and the dot-com boom was in full effect. But things began to take a downturn from September 2000.

Intro

As per the records of September 1st, 2000 of NASDAQ, the trading was at 4234.33. The fall started after that and by January 2nd, 2001 there was a drop of 45.9% and the NASDAQ was now trading at 2291.86. There was a drop of 78.4% from the 5132.52 of March 2000. In October 2002, the NASDAQ was trading at 1108.49.

Causes of the Crash

The 2000 stock market crash resulted in a loss of almost $8 trillion of wealth. So what must be the reason for the crash? As has been deduced by market experts, the corporate corruption is believed to be a major reason for the crash to occur. Lots of multinational companies had been drawing profits by engaging in illegal means and frauds. The accounts that they maintained had serious loopholes and the debts were not shown. The stock options that the officers took worked towards diluting the companies. Another probable reason for the 2000 stock market crash was the overvaluation of the stocks and the dot-com bubble burst. Even the companies that had absolutely no hope of earning profits and were consistently losing money had a market capitalization of more than a billion dollar. The stock trading was going on the P/E basis.

The increase in internet trading also led to the crash of 2000. The internet served an easy access to trading for a lot of traders who lacked the required experience. Their trial and error methods of trading lead to losses in the stock trading market. Another supposed reason is that the research firms had a conflict of interest. The investment bankers had the research firms put not so honest ratings on the stocks, thus leading to an overall loss of wealth in the market.

Reforms After the Crash

Now the stock market needed to be revived. And hence lots of fresh reforms were started to stabilize the market once again. As already mentioned one supposed reason for the stock market crash of 2000 was the advent of the internet and online trading in such a huge number. To see that just about anyone doesn’t jump into stock trading a rule was formed for these Daytraders. Going by these rules, an individual had to have a minimum of $25000 to their name in any bank account. That would ensure that the person is not insolvent. Other than this very basic rule, lots of other rules were laid which could restrict the previous marketing methods which led to losses.

The loopholes in the accounts of the companies are believed to be a major reason for the crash. The companies weren’t honest about their dealings in the company accounts and hid debts which affected the market. Therefore the rule of CEO and CFO accountability was laid. Under these regulations, all the statements needed to be duly signed by the CEOs or CFOs of the respective companies. That way frauds and loopholes could easily be made out. Also, the prosecution was made stricter. The penalties that would result from frauds or any illegal activity in trading were increased. This was meant to control the losses that the market was suffering.

The next step that was taken was striving to make reforms in accounts. That implied that the companies now needed to make clearer balance sheets that disclosed more information on the transactions and investments of the company. The companies were asked to make a proper disclosure of all details such as stock options and investments that were made offshore by the companies. This was done to give the investors a better understanding of a company before they actually did invest in a particular company. Since this was not mandatory earlier, the investors couldn’t judge a company properly and invest in nonprofitable ventures which led to losses. Since the conflict of interest of the research firms led to losses, the new rule that was laid was that the investment bankers and the research analysts had to work separately. This was needed to be followed very strictly as there were high penalties charged in case of breach of regulations.

Aftermath

The stock market crash of 2000 is regarded as one of the biggest crashes in the history of stock trading, the others being in the year 1987 and 1929. All these years the markets incurred heavy losses and the reforms were introduced to once again stabilize the market and restore the losses.