In addition, margin calls in the stock market contributed to the selloff.
I did my best to educate myself about cattle futures and margin calls to make it less frightening.
The big question now is whether the margin calls among the leveraged set are over, or whether they have a long way to go.
Worse, many companies had used their shares as collateral, which led to so-called "margin calls" during the very worst of the crisis.
Mr. Ebbers said he had received margin calls from bankers who wanted him to sell some stock to cover the loans.
Indeed, margin calls probably played the same role in yesterday's market that automatic sell programs played back in 1987.
They just did not have the excess collateral to meet the margin calls after the Russian financial crisis hit in 1998.
He also faced unspecified margin calls from the Osaka exchange.
Where did Mr. Leeson get the money for the margin calls?
Schwab said that margin calls on Tuesday ran to three times their usual level.