Following up on a prior post, take a look at the trend and most recent state of the S&P 500 index and compare it to the last major bear market conditions that followed the dot-com bust.
There is a host of very interesting technical similarities (which are noted below) that may indicate that we have entered or are just about to enter another bear market where on average the S&P 500 index retraces 20 – 30% from its prior peak.
It’s important to keep in mind that, at best, a bear market can be viewed as a transition into an period where there is a prolonged bias to sell into strength resulting in a successive series of lower highs yielding a clear downward trend.
At worst, there are periods (days or weeks) where particular stocks and the index as a whole will crash hard.