Quote from Bearbelly:
Hey guys nobody is debating whether the market was bullish or bearish then. There was a large selloff on news so I bought what I thought was the low of a panic selloff as we thought it was an accident. But that is not the point. The market could have been bullish at the time. The market is bullish right now. What would happen if we had a massive terrorist attack? The market would tank big time and there would be NO warning. The point of this thread is that there is the possiblity of the market tanking big at any time.
I completely disagree. I think you miss the whole point.
You're right...there is no debate over whether the market was bullish or bearish on 9/11. By any definition it was bearish. And therefore, any news will typically accentuate the downside. If a surpisingly bullish news announcement had happened, my belief is that it would have simply been sold.
Here's an example. We were in a bull trend on July 7, 2005...the date on the London bombings. The moment of the announcement we had a severe sell off. We recovered somewhat by the time of the opening in the US markets. But we still had a sharply lower opening. We promptly rallied the rest of the day...and in fact, rallied the rest of July!
The point is that when news either accentuates the trend....as it did on 9/11. Or the market opens against trend, and then recovers and continues to move in the direction of trend. In fact, that's how trends take place...the market continually overcomes news unsupportive of trend.
So the point here is that it is not true that "there is the possiblity of the market tanking big at any time." Worst case scenario is an uptrend where a piece of negative news hits and causes a lower open, which we then recover.
I can't think of any case where a bull trend has ended on negative news, or vice versa. Usually bear markets end on very negative news...and bull markets end on very positive news.
The 1987 crash did not occur from the peak. It occured AFTER the market was below the 50 day average.
The traders who should be very worried are those who bottom pick severe down trends. Because that overnight news may well be something that could cause a collapse. That's the position you found yourself in on 9/10 bearbelly. Trying to pick the bottom of a market which had traded at new multiweek lows, new multi month lows, and new multiyear lows....THAT DAY.
OldTrader