BEAT THE COUCH · THE DAILY ARCHIVE · DEALT JUL 26, 2026

Day 15 · From the Last Dance of the Roaring Twenties into the 1929 Crash and the Great Depression

THE SECRET WINDOW: DEC 7, 1928 TO DEC 12, 1930 · 504 TRADING DAYS

On July 26, 2026 everyone who opened the game got the same secret two years: December 7, 1928 to December 12, 1930, from the last dance of the Roaring Twenties into the 1929 Crash and the Great Depression. The couch bought on day one, never sold, and turned $10,000 into $7,345 (-26.6%). 82% of the players who tried beat it.

THE COUCH'S $10,000, DAY BY DAY, REAL DAILY DATA

$10,000 START $7,345 Dec 7, 1928 Dec 12, 1930

What the couch did

ENDED WITH$7,345 (-26.6%)
WORST DRAWDOWN-49% by Dec 12, 1930
WORST SINGLE DAY-12.9% Oct 28, 1929
BEST SINGLE DAY+12.5% Oct 30, 1929
CASH INSTEAD (T-BILLS)+7.8%

The era

The last dance of the Roaring Twenties. Radio stocks, margin loans at ten to one, and a market that had more than doubled in two years. Shoeshine boys gave stock tips. Everyone was a genius, for a while.

The 1929 Crash and the Great Depression. The crash came in October 1929 and then kept coming for almost three years. Banks failed by the thousand, a quarter of the workforce lost its job, and the market lost around 85% from top to bottom. Buy and hold was a documented disaster here. It is the window every market timer dreams of.

Inside this window: Black Monday 1929 (โˆ’12.8%) and Black Tuesday 1929 (โˆ’10.2%).

THE EXHIBIT: BLACK MONDAY 1929 (โˆ’12.8%). EVERYONE WHO PLAYED WAS THERE.

What the players did

BEAT THE COUCH81.8%
  WITH CERTIFIED SKILL24.8%
  BY LUCK57.0%
COUCH WINS8.3%
DEAD HEAT0.8%
ENLIGHTENED (TOUCHED NOTHING)9.1%
MEDIAN RESULT vs THE COUCH+21.6%
MEDIAN TRADES4
MEDIAN TIME IN MARKET70%

The read

A falling market, and the humans finally showed up: 82% of players beat the couch. Before anyone frames it, only 24.8% passed the monkey audit. Most of the winners were simply out of the market while it fell, which is not the same as knowing it would.

Player figures count every official and replayed attempt at this exact hand filed on the day it was dealt, from the run export of October 31, 2026. A win counts as SKILL only if it beats 90% of 1,000 monkeys replaying the same window with the same trade count and the same time in the market. Across the whole ledger the couch wins 62% of 120,800 games.

The archive has the long version of this stretch: Could You Have Beaten the 1929 Crash?

Play the past handthe same two years everyone got on Jul 26, 2026. Free, no signup. No streak, no standings: filed as a REPLAY.

Or play today's hand. It stays secret until tomorrow.

Frequently asked

What was the Beat the Couch daily hand on July 26, 2026?

Day 15 dealt the two years from December 7, 1928 to December 12, 1930, from the last dance of the Roaring Twenties into the 1929 Crash and the Great Depression. A couch that bought on day one and never sold turned $10,000 into $7,345 (-26.6%).

How often did players beat the couch on day 15?

81.8% of the players who filed the hand beat the couch. 24.8% passed the 1,000-monkey skill audit; the rest of the winners were stamped LUCKY.

Can I still play the day 15 hand?

Yes. The past hand button deals the exact same window. It is filed as a replay: it does not touch your streak, the daily standings or the public ledger.

← Day 14All daily handsDay 16 →

BEAT THE COUCH · the game · the archive · the daily hands · the evidence · the data · Privacy · Terms

Not financial advice. The couch is not licensed for anything.