Quote from sulong:
NQ 5m 2/13
Dotted lines are floor pivots, solid lines are prior Hi's/Lo's.
1. The NQ's reaction to early reports seem insignificant to me as was V.
2. Price opened near the pivot,and rose to and poked through the top of the prior days closing range.
3. A pull back to the pivot with lower V, ( which looked to me at the time, a good place to go long)
4.price rose once again, and tagged R1, on rising V.
5. price then fell back to it's pivot, on declining V
6. price then poked through the pivot decisively, on a V spike.
7. price then found temporary support at yesterdays close, on diminished V.
8.price then plunged 10 pts on very heavy V, in the process poking through S1
9.Price continued down on heavy V, until it reached S2., at which point it found some support with less than the V on point 8.
10. price slowly recovers from its down move, and limps back to S1 on significantly lower V. The point at where price touches S1, we see the lowest V sense the open.
11. One more bout of selling appears, with heavy, but some what less V, where price finds its low of the day
12. Price staggers away from the battle field, on low, and slowly expanding V
I'm with you on all of this. I've studied this quite a lot since Friday morning because I see no clue as to the outcome. Price hit the pivot level, but volume was fine. I saw no divergences (which doesn't mean there weren't any). Taking the trade would mean taking it simply because it hit the pivot level, and that represents a risk that not everyone is willing to take. Nor was there any retest, even on the 1m. It simply reversed and died.
But I want to re-emphasize your point about the effect of big volume on price. It took more than 90 minutes for price to continue downward, and even then it was for only a few more points. The day ended pretty much where volume put it in the morning. You use the word "staggers" appropriately. Price has had the shit kicked out of it, and it does in fact limp thereafter.