2000: On the same day, technology stocks set a record for industry representation in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, at 34.9%, and Cisco Systems, Inc. becomes the world's most valuable corporation, with a total market value of $548 billion. Never before has any single industry sector accounted for so much of the stock market, and never has a company become the world's largest in so short a time. Over the next year, however, technology shrinks to just 17% of the S&P 500 as tech stocks lose more than half their value, and Cisco sheds over $425 billion — the fastest and biggest fall in market value any stock has ever suffered.

The Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2000, p. C1, and April 18, 2001, p. A1;The New York Times, May 6, 2001, p. C8;Investment News, April 9, 2001, p. 12;The Washington Post, April 6, 2001, p. A1;Fortune, May 14, 2001;David Blitzer, chief investment strategist, Standard & Poor's, interview with Jason Zweig, May 4, 2001;"Standard & Poor's U.S. Indices: First-Quarter 2001 Update,"

1980: Texas oil barons Nelson Bunker Hunt and W. Herbert Hunt fail spectacularly to corner the market in silver. After the brothers drive the price up, new supplies come flooding into the market, catching the Hunts by surprise. In a single day, silver plunges from $21.62 to $10.80 an ounce, and Bache Halsey Stuart Shields, the stock brokerage firm affiliated with the Hunts, nearly goes under.

The New York Times, March 28, 1980, p. 1;reprinted in Floyd Norris and Christine Bockelmann, The New York Times Century of Business (McGraw-Hill, New York, 2000), pp. 249-250.