What caused the stockmarket crash of 1987 – and could it happen again today?

The 1987 stockmarket crash was a surprise for many – but some did see it coming. John Stepek explains what caused it, and what it tells us about today’s markets.

For many people in the UK, October 1987 is infamous for the Great Storm that swept the south of England.

As well as causing widespread disruption and 18 deaths (plus another four in France), the Great Storm left an indelible mark on the reputation of Michael Fish, the UK's top weather forecaster at the time.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.