The Flash Correction
Courtesy of Michael Batnick
31 days ago the market peaked. In nine sessions the NASDAQ 100 fell 10%. And then in the next 21, it got it all back and then some, gaining 13% over that time. [Note: The Nasdaq 100 dropped about 1.2% today to 7,046.5.]
This has been a wild few weeks for stocks, but it is not unprecedented. This type of move has happened before, as shown in the chart below.
What’s interesting about the previous V formations is that they all occurred at very identifiable moments – the Russian default in the fall of ’98, the dotcom crash experienced a few of these puke and rallies, and then at the bottom of the GFC in 2009. But what story are we ascribing to what just happened?
The best I can come up with is this was a flash correction driven by many forces, but absent a single culprit.