Collapse · NASDAQ Composite Index (1987)
Relive NASDAQ's stunning 36.0% drawdown across 1987's collapse window, from June through early January. Replay 150 daily bars, face 26 decision points, and receive an AI coach review—simulated capital, educational context only.
150 daily bars · 26 decision points · 1987-06 to 1988-01 · Stocks
Key facts
This window spans 216 days with a peak-to-trough drawdown of 36.0% and a 16.0% run-up.
- Max drawdown
- −36.0%
- Max run-up
- +16.0%
- Duration
- 216 days
- Largest single-day move
- −11.3%
- Bars
- 150 Daily bars
- Decision points
- 26
Every figure above is computed programmatically from this replay’s own candle series — no editorial input, no LLM. Methodology: Methodology
The market advances day by day. You only see candles up to the current day — as if you were really there.
At key decision points choose Buy / Trim / Exit / Hold. Each decision advances the timeline by one day.
After settlement you get a six-dimension score and an AI coach review. Your result enters the scenario leaderboard.
Event Replay
What happened — and what it teaches
The NASDAQ Composite, a benchmark of growth and technology sentiment, entered the summer of 1987 at elevated levels after years of bullish optimism. From June 2, 1987, through early January 1988, the index moved through one of the most volatile windows in its modern history. Over 150 daily bars, participants had to navigate a backdrop of policy uncertainty, shifting interest rate expectations, and global macroeconomic stress — conditions where discipline mattered more than conviction. With 26 decision points embedded in the replay, including 9 flagged as critical, the scenario tests how a trainee handles pressure when headlines accelerate and capital preservation becomes the central question.
What unfolds across the dataset is a textbook collapse pattern. The composite closes at 413.6 on the first session and ends the window at 338.5, a decline of -18.2% on the surface. Beneath that headline figure lies the real damage: a maximum drawdown of 36.0%, and a single-day swing of 11.3% — the kind of bar that punishes over-leveraged positions and rewards pre-defined exits. The shape of the move, rather than the endpoint, is the lesson: traders who treated early weakness as noise faced a drawdown that more than doubled the final loss, while those who respected volatility were given repeated opportunities to reduce exposure at favorable levels.
For decision training, the replay offers three durable insights. First, process beats prediction: the largest gains in survival came from rules that did not require forecasting the bottom. Second, sizing is survival — a 36.0% drawdown is unsurvivable for accounts using leverage or concentrated bets, regardless of post-event recovery. Third, psychology is the multiplier: the 11.3% single-bar move forces trainees to feel the gap between plan and panic. In a simulated environment, the cost of these lessons is measured in coaching notes, not capital, which is precisely why this 150-bar window belongs in any serious curriculum on tail risk.
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