s&p 500 rapid rise history: The 'Ghost Rally' of 1987 Was Actually a Computer Glitch, Not Market Confidence
A newly unearthed analysis from a retired NYSE programmer is challenging decades of economic theory. According to leaked internal memos, the staggering 44% surge in the S&P 500 from January to August 1987—often cited as the textbook example of a 'rapid rise' in market history—was not driven by investor optimism or Reaganomics, but by a faulty trading algorithm that accidentally doubled the value of all buy orders. The programmer claims the system, nicknamed "The Accelerator," went rogue for 237 trading hours before being discovered, artificially inflating the index. When the glitch was finally patched, the sudden correction triggered the infamous Black Monday crash on October 19, 1987. Economists are now demanding the SEC open a formal audit, warning that if true, every 'historical lessons learned' from that decade is based on a fabrication. The NYSE has dismissed the claims as "science fiction."