First Anniversary of Stock Crash : Wall St. to Mark Day It Would Rather Forget

Seminars, luncheon buffets, footraces, black armbands and T-shirts are among the ways--serious and not so serious--that traders, regulators and industry officials nationwide will mark today’s first anniversary of the crash of 1987.

But by and large, most people in the securities industry appear poised to conduct business as usual today, wanting few reminders of that dark day one year ago when the Dow Jones industrial index plunged a devastating 508 points, bringing an end to Wall Street’s five-year bull market party.

“Most of us would rather forget about the crash than relive it,” says William Morgan, an over-the-counter trader at Morgan, Olmstead, Kennedy & Gardner in Los Angeles.

“We’ve suffered enough,” says the manager at Harry’s, a restaurant and longtime gathering place for Wall Street professionals in the American Stock Exchange building. “We’re not planning anything special.”

That’s also true of most stock exchanges, which don’t plan any special events except to host dozens of reporters and photographers expected to descend upon trading floors to cover the crash anniversary. The Pacific Stock Exchange, for example, will hold an “Oct. 19 Press Reunion” at its equity trading floors in Los Angeles and San Francisco this morning, featuring interviews with traders and exchange officials.

Many exchange officials and regulators are being featured on seminars or talk shows. Among those events is New York University’s all-day conference today titled “Crashes and Panics in Historical Perspective,” featuring such experts as economists Paul Samuelson and Charles P. Kindleberger of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Merton Miller of the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller of Yale.

On Thursday--a day late but not a dollar short--a heavyweight lineup featuring Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman David S. Ruder, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Wendy Lee Gramm, Chicago Mercantile Exchange President William J. Brodsky and Chicago Board of Trade President Thomas R. Donovan will address the crash’s impact at the opening session of the annual Commodities Law Institute in Chicago.

Some brokerages, meanwhile, are using the crash commemoration to drum up investor interest in stocks and bonds. Perhaps the biggest effort was put on Monday night by Merrill Lynch. Its nationwide teleconference seminar, “One Year Later: Investing in a New Era,” attracted 75,000 to 100,000 investors at 52 hotels and 358 offices nationwide, Merrill Lynch spokesman William Clark claims.

Other brokerage officials are using the occasion to pat themselves on the back. Peter Da Puzzo, head of over-the-counter trading at Shearson Lehman Hutton in New York, will host a buffet lunch for 140 of his traders and other personnel today. “It’s to thank them for performing so well last year under pressure and for their hard work this year under difficult times,” Da Puzzo says.

But not all activities will be so serious.

The North Star Pub, about three blocks from the New York Stock Exchange, is sponsoring a lunchtime “Run on the Bank” today in which brokers and others will dash about 200 yards to the nearest bank. The race winner gets free lunch for two, says manager Gary Regan.

Similar frivolity will be shared this afternoon by members of the San Francisco Security Traders Assn. They are sponsoring a “Post-Crash Boat Bash,” where 150 members and guests will cruise the afternoon away on a 100-foot yacht in San Francisco Bay. The party will feature a live band, catered food, full bar with champagne and caviar, party favors and commemorative T-shirts, says organizer Denny Anderson, an OTC trader at Shearson Lehman Hutton.

But the boat bash won’t be without its grim reminders, Anderson says. Party-goers will wear black crepe armbands. “We want to create a crash atmosphere,” Anderson says, tongue in cheek.