------20th anniversary------ 5) rich people sure have a different perspective. that was a few years after the crash. by then i'd accumulated more knowledge and experience than in 1987, but i knew all the trading techniques didn't work that well in real trading, and consistently making profit wasn't easy. so i said to my friend, "ok, i'll think about it." i appreciated his confidence in me but i wasn't ready for it. i never took his offer. back to the present. with dow at 13,300 level, a 23% drop means a fall of 3050 points, down to 10,250. if it happens in one day, it'd be knee jerking, to say the least. looking at the 1987 chart, one week before the crash, on oct 12, when the dow went below september low of 2,500, an experienced, disciplined chartist would've unloaded all his holdings. if market resumed its upward trend later, he could always re-enter the market.