Statistical properties of the aftershocks of stock market crashes: evidence based on the 1987 crash, 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic

Every unique crisis, a new and novel risk factor, leads to a rapid, synchronous and panic sell-off by the investors that lead to a massive stock market crash, termed as mainshock, which usually continues for more than one day. Though most of the stocks start recovering from the crash within a short period, the effect of the crash remains throughout the recovery phase. During the recovery, as the market remains in stress, any small perturbation leads to a relatively smaller aftershock, which may also occur for a few days. Statistical analysis of the mainshock and the aftershocks for the crash of 1987, the financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic shows that they follow the Gutenberg-Richter (G-R) power law. The duration of the influence of the mainshock, within which aftershocks are considered, has been calculated using structural break analysis. The analysis shows that high magnitude aftershocks comparable to the mainshock are rare but low magnitude aftershocks can be seen frequently till the full recovery of the market. It is also consistent with the psychology of the investors that when the unique crisis becomes known, the market does not react too irrationally as it did initially, and hence subsequent crashes become relatively smaller. The results indicate that there is a possibility of the occurrence of future low magnitude aftershocks due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis may help investors make rational investment decisions during the stressed period after a major market crash.