October 15, 2008 Recap: A Steep Selloff Lacking Volume

I know a lot of people were calling for a retest of last week’s lows but I don’t think very many thought it would happen this quickly after Monday’s ginormous rally. It sure looks like those lows will be retested. The people were kicking themselves for not getting a piece (or all) of Monday’s rally are getting a second chance to try their luck. I wonder if they’ll step up. It seems like you could create some pretty good risk/reward scenarios if you can buy close to last Friday’s lows.

The one thing that stood out to me today was that the volume was just above average. For a day with near record percentage losses that’s quite stunning to me. Compare today’s volume to the volume we got last week. Normally that lack of volume would bode well for a retest of the lows but who knows given this wild market. I can’t wait to see what expiration has in store…

Trend Table

All down again as of yesterday’s close

Trend Nasdaq S&P 500 Russell 2000
Long-Term Down Down Down
Intermediate Down Down Down
Short-term Down Down Down

(+) Indicates an upward reclassification today
(-) Indicates a downward reclassification today
Lat Indicates a Lateral trend

*** I’m simply using the indices’ relations to their 200, 50 and 10-day moving averages to tell me the long, intermediate and short-term trends, respectively.

Comments

  1. Posted by Stocks on October 16, 2008 at 4:33 pm

    I think this is going to be one long gradual crash like a huge 60 foot wave smashing against the rocks. Trillions of dollars on stockholder value will be lost.