High-beta growth stocks fell 80 percent or more in the 1969-70 bear market

Evidence

As the 1960s ended, however, the stock boom of the decade’s middle years began to evaporate. The DowJones industrial average fell 15 percent in 1969, and continued to slide in the early months of 1970. By May, it was 36 percent below the level of December 1968. The favored “growth” stocks of the 1960s major components of the high-beta portfolios whose risk Treynor had diagnosed suffered far worse, many falling by 80 percent or more. The initial public offering of Electronic Data Systems in September 1968 had been one of the decade’s stock-market highlights, but in a single day (April 22, 1970) its stock lost one-third of its value.” — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 364

Categorization

• QUESTION: The EDS single-day 33% drop is striking — worth investigating whether any other mid-century single-day collapses of famous growth firms compare.