 Despite the infusion of cash , the banks of New York were reluctant to make the short @-@ term loans they typically provided to facilitate daily stock trades . Prices on the exchange began to crash , owing to the lack of funds to finance purchases . At 1 : 30 p.m. Thursday , October 24 , Ransom Thomas , the president of the New York Stock Exchange , rushed to Morgan 's offices to tell him that he would have to close the exchange early . Morgan was emphatic that an early close of the exchange would be catastrophic . 
