The 1987 crash created unprecedented clearing obligations twenty times normal daily settlement

Evidence

On the evening of October 19, however, those who had bought S&P futures contracts owed those who had sold such contracts twenty times that amount (Melamed and Tamarkin 1996, p. 359). — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 19

Categorization

• XREF: Numbers the scale of the 1987 clearing-call crisis; plausibly connects to broader historical accounts of the stock market crash and its institutional near-collapse. — connects to: The greatest systemic danger of 1987 came after the crash, from the clearinghouse’s solvency. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 833; Clearinghouse settlement failure alone could have triggered a cascade of 1987 bankruptcies; The 1987 crash exposed how fragile the options clearing system was to extreme prices. — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 164

Broader Connections

• The greatest systemic danger of 1987 came after the crash, from the clearinghouse’s solvency. #expands (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 833
• Clearinghouse settlement failure alone could have triggered a cascade of 1987 bankruptcies #corroborates (0.80)
• The 1987 crash exposed how fragile the options clearing system was to extreme prices. #corroborates (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 164