After the crash, communication between regulators and markets improved. The chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchanges Commission, the Commodity Futures Commission and the Treasury Department have met constantly in order to avert another crash. Regulators and major markets have also increased their communication with each other through a squawk box, which is a line that is kept open at all times to connect members of working groups to the floors of the exchanges. This squawk box is supposed to keep the developments in all markets accessible to everyone. Manuals have been made which list procedures that should be taken if the market should decline.
Some procedures are dependent upon the degree of the decline.
Home phone numbers of all important people that are needed in case of a market decline are also posted in the manual. One of the most frustrating aspects of Black Monday for the fund investors was the inablility to call in in order to check their stock prices, or even trade, for that matter. In many large corporations a phone system that was designed to control up to 2,500 calls a day was deluged with more than two times that amount in the days after Black Monday. Shareholders and investors were put on hold for more than an hour. Many hung up.