Jim Cramer Reflects on the Anniversary of the Black Monday Market Crash

On this date twenty-nine years ago, world stock markets crashed during a massive one day selloff that came to be known as Black Monday. On October 19, 1987  the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 22%, and other stock markets around the world suffered even more severe declines. "It was a very startling time. There were many people that went under," explained Jim Cramer, founder of TheStreet who worked at a hedge fund in 1987. He was one of the lucky ones. "I was lucky enough to be in cash, other than some puts on J&J (JNJ) - Get Report . A lot people felt like it made our career, that we were in cash." Cramer explained how his firm moved into cash after bouts of selling in the week leading up to Black Monday. "We lost money that week. We felt that it was time to go. And it was time to go because the market was selling at twenty-nine times earnings." During Black Monday, chaos reigned on Wall Street, as sell orders flooded the market.