Chart of the Week: Not so Fast WSJ

By Colin Twiggs
March 28, 2020 4:00 a.m. EDT (7:00 p.m. AEDT)

First, please read the Disclaimer.

We were surprised to receive this from The Wall Street Journal on Friday:

Markets Alert
Dow Industrials Rally, Ending Bear Market

A new bull market has begun. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied more than 20% since hitting a low three days ago, ending the shortest bear market ever.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

That is news to us. A 20% reversal is a quick rule of thumb used by brokers. It is not part of Dow Theory. To suggest that we are now in a bull market is ludicrous.

Dow Theory tracks secondary movements in the index which last from ten to sixty days (Nelson, 1903). Only if the secondary movement forms a higher trough followed by a higher peak does that signal reversal to an up-trend. And the same pattern has to occur on the Transport Average to confirm the change.

A three-day rally is a normal part of a bear market and, with volatility near record highs, it is likely that some rallies are going to reach 20 per cent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Bear markets are more volatile than bull markets. You can see this from the volatility spikes above in 1991, 2000-2003, 2008, and 2020. Stocks go up on the escalator and down in the elevator.

According to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices, most days with the biggest gains occur in a bear market. Eighteen of the top twenty biggest daily % gains on the Dow occurred in a bear market. Only two (marked in blue) were in a bull market.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

The largest gains in the 1930s bear market were as high as 15% in a single day!

Interesting that eighteen of the top twenty biggest daily % losses on the Dow also occurred in a bear market (red).

Dow Jones Industrial Average

That is because volatility is a lot higher in bear markets than in bull markets.

So expect big moves in both directions.

It is time to recognize that financial markets are inherently unstable. Imposing market discipline means imposing instability, and how much instability can society take? .... To put it bluntly, the choice confronting us is whether we will regulate global financial markets internationally or leave it to each individual state to protect its interests as best it can. The latter course will surely lead to the breakdown of the gigantic circulatory system, which goes under the name of global capitalism.

~ George Soros: The Crisis of Global Capitalism (1998)



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Colin Twiggs is director of The Patient Investor Pty Ltd, an Authorised Representative (no. 1256439) of MoneySherpa Pty Limited which holds Australian Financial Services Licence No. 451289.

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