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and value of these shares were rising at an alarming rate. Consequently, more and more people bought these shares, the value getting pushed higher and higher. They were so popular that a lot of people were "buying on the margin", meaning borrowing a fair amount of money from the bank to buy these shares in hopes of earning a larger profit and then repaying this debt. However, the banks were allowing people to borrow excessive amounts of money and many could not afford to pay them back because their business failed to prosper and many became bankrupt. In the end, the banks did not have enough money on reserve to offer financial help to suffering businesses because they had lent too much to people who asked for loans, and many of these people could not repay the banks. Money therefore became worthless (people were using dollar bills/notes as tissue paper!).

Because so many investors were so confident that share prices can only go up (also encouraged by Herbert Hoover's unfulfilled promises), many invested huge amounts of savings on these shares and were spending more than what they can afford. However, because the fluctuation of share prices was so unpredictable and people had very little control over it, many of these investments were unsuccessful, leaving people with absolutely nothing.
People were already spending a lot if not all of their money buying and investing on shares, but people were also taking the wrong advantage of hire purchase; they were spending money they don't have and the unmonitored advertisements were encouraging people to do this. People just became poorer and poorer. Again, this does not help the already existing problem of overproduction; people just can't afford anymore.

Share holders lost their confidence in the investments they made. Companies were losing profits (because noone can afford to buy products anymore) and everyone suddenly pulled out their shares and started reselling, value and prices of shares fell just as rapidly as it had increased. Experts speculated the upcoming of an event such as The Wall Street Crash. Within 5 days (Saturday 19th of October to Thursday, 29th of October) millions of shares were sold. Banks decided to try and support this market the day after but soon gave up. President Hoover attempted to instil some confidence amongst the citizens by saying that "The Fundamental business of the country is on a sound and secure business". This did not work. Millions of shares are now worthless and with this came

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