As share prices tumbled on that infamous Monday in October 1987, a chain of dominoes stretching from Tokyo to New York, Tim Hammett was more stunned by the reaction of his new colleagues at an investment fund in the City. The value of household names was collapsing, yet they were cheering. “Out came the drinks,” says Mr Hammett, who had just started working at CIN Management, a fund responsible for the pensions of Britain’s coal miners.
While they celebrated, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its largest-ever one-day drop, causing panic to deepen in London when markets reopened on Tuesday. At CIN, however, the young investor was allowed to make his first trade for the ￡10bn pension scheme. “Everyone on the phone, just buy everything, buy everything, and we did,” says Mr Hammett.
The fund could pounce because it had spent months moving more than a tenth of its capital out of the equity market, having judged stocks too expensive when compared with bonds.