Crash · S&P/TSX Composite Index (2008)
Relive the 2008 financial crisis as the S&P/TSX Composite plunged from 14,723 to 8,724, a 40.7% decline across 144 trading days. Step through each session, tackle 25 decision points, and receive an AI coach review in this simulated educational replay.
144 daily bars · 25 decision points · 2008-05 to 2008-12 · Stocks
Key facts
This window spans 207 days with a peak-to-trough drawdown of 48.8% and a 20.0% run-up.
- Max drawdown
- −48.8%
- Max run-up
- +20.0%
- Duration
- 207 days
- Largest single-day move
- +9.8%
- Bars
- 144 Daily bars
- Decision points
- 25
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
In the spring of 2008, the S&P/TSX Composite Index hovered near 14,723.4, masking the mounting tensions rippling through global credit markets. As summer approached, what began as a subprime mortgage crisis in the United States was rapidly metastasizing into a full-blown systemic collapse, threatening to upend financial institutions on both sides of the border. The Canadian market, deeply integrated with American finance, faced an existential stress test unlike any experienced since the dot-com bust—investors had to decide whether to hold, reduce exposure, or brace for sustained deterioration.
Over the 144 trading days spanning May 23 to December 16, 2008, the S&P/TSX Composite collapsed by 40.7%, settling at 8,724.1. The damage was even harsher on an intraday basis, with maximum drawdown reaching 48.8%. A single session saw a 9.8% move, reflecting panic-driven selling that rendered traditional diversification inadequate. The market offered no safe harbor—only the discipline of those who had pre-defined their risk parameters and the regret of those caught unprepared.
This replay places you inside 25 decision points, 9 of them critical junctures where positioning and psychological resolve were tested to the limit. The scenario teaches that process matters more than prediction: volatility of this magnitude punishes improvisation and rewards those who have calibrated position sizing, defined exit triggers, and cultivated the emotional equilibrium to resist herd behavior. Studying this crash sharpens the risk awareness and humility every participant needs when markets turn hostile.
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