If I remember correctly, it was the second day of the trading year, and the first day of the new year the market sold off sharply...Then, the market bottomed on that morning and right around 12 noon, that surprise rate cut surfaced...I heard one success story out of that fiasco from someone who had quick fingers and did get in on it...I also remember several people who had been pressing the short side throughout that presidential run-off in Nov-Dec, 2000 got caught on that move and never came back...I think they just gave up trading after that...
We had another spike off of a report in April, 2001, in a very similar type of event, except that this type it occurred after a monthly breakout, so macro funds, etc. were probably a bit more prepared and/or positioned for it that time around...
I still say the Oct, 1998 spike was the most lethal I have ever seen...5 minutes after the bond market close, one day before options expiration, in the midst of rumors of LTCM insolvency, Russian devaluation, Asian "contagion", and the market never looked back after that...But that was one crazy final hour, and at that time somewhat unprecendented...That set the stage for so many of these intra-day spikes following that day
