A Terrorist-Resistant Stock Market

Many people, experts at that, believe that the tendency of the global market throbs in basic human instincts, and the best way to combat a collapse is to dig deep into the human resolve and do as a defensive combatant would do: stand his ground.

On its way to being the new millennium's best stories of stock market fall and recovery is that of the 9-11 Terror Attack movement. The U.S. gross domestic product shrank to a rate of 0.4% in the third quarter of 2001. The Dow Jones had initially posted at 4.6%. While analysts expected the worst, sectors and people groups all over the world, including much of the online community, stood in sobriety and solemnity in denouncing the act and everything it stood for. Probably in its own way of brazen defiance, the stock market soared to 12.1% in no time. One expert was quoted that a collapse in the stock market would signify triumph for the enemy.

At the same time, the "spirit" of the stock market seemed to have been manifesting - this time screaming - to its players that tragedies, no matter how traumatic, do not tend to stifle vibrant trading. It seems to be a basic case of "you can't put a good trading down!" Time magazine, in its special issue on the 911 Tragedy, published a list compiled by Dow Jones of crisis events in the twentieth century that caused a sharp decline in U.S. stocks and their corresponding change in gains that each acquired within a six-month period.

The Asian stock market crisis saw a -12.4% on October 7, 1993 to a 25.0% at the twenty-seventh. The Gulf War ultimatum of December 24, 1990 posted stocks at -4.3% then soaring to 18.7% on January 16, 1991. The Arab oil embargo: from October 18, 1973, the market fell to -17.9% then rising to 7.2% on December 5, 1973. The bombing of Cambodia which started on April 29, 1970, gave the stock market a -14.4%, emerged at 20.7% on May 26.

With the 9-11 incident, experts expected much worse. Admittedly, they had underestimated another reality that ruled the stock market: that it runs in the blood, sweat, and tears of humanity. If it can be jittered by the slightest piece of news of instability, it can dig deep into its resolve to stand its ground.

At the end of the day, it is a nation's confidence that will make it economically attractive and ideally terrorist-resistant. While the world is on its way of beefing up its counter-terrorist strategies, the investment world has seen a side of it that can be harnessed to be empowered against needless fears in the future.