In the 1920's, the government's loose regulation of the stock market led to over speculation. Anyone could buy a stock if they had 10% of the money to purchase it. It was called buying on margin, as people would buy the stocks on loan, probably knowing that they could never afford to pay off the loan, and only needed a 10% down payment. Stock prices were on the rise in the 20's as they grew 4 times from 1921 to 1929 and people were eager to make money. The government tried to stop the rapid rise in the prices with higher interest rates in hopes to scare people away from buying. By October of 1929 prices had been driven so high people could no longer afford them and people started to sell. People started panic selling on Thursday, October 24th and by 'Black Tuesday' on October 29th, 16 million shares were traded and the market went down about 12 percent. The panic selling caused people and investors to lose tremendous amounts of money and this crash of the stock market signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.