Whips and Chains

Fire and ice
You come on like a flame
Then you turn a cold shoulder
--Pat Benatar

We moving thru one of the more volatile stretches in market history. Here's some Dow data over the last 30 days or so:

Date	Close	Change	AbsValue
2-Sep-08	11,517
3-Sep-08	11,533	16	16
4-Sep-08	11,188	-345	345
5-Sep-08	11,221	33	33
8-Sep-08	11,511	290	290
9-Sep-08	11,231	-280	280
10-Sep-08	11,269	38	38
11-Sep-08	11,434	165	165
12-Sep-08	11,422	-12	12
15-Sep-08	10,918	-504	504
16-Sep-08	11,059	142	142
17-Sep-08	10,610	-449	449
18-Sep-08	11,020	410	410
19-Sep-08	11,388	369	369
22-Sep-08	11,016	-373	373
23-Sep-08	10,854	-162	162
24-Sep-08	10,825	-29	29
25-Sep-08	11,022	197	197
26-Sep-08	11,143	121	121
29-Sep-08	10,365	-778	778
30-Sep-08	10,851	485	485
1-Oct-08	10,831	-20	20
2-Oct-08	10,483	-348	348
3-Oct-08	10,325	-157	157
		-1,192	5,721

17 days since September 2nd with triple digit moves. Over the past week alone: -778, +485, -20, -348, -157.

Over the month, we've seen the Dow shed nearly 1200 points. The absolute value of these daily changes amount to about 5x this amount.

Natural systems often exhibit extreme volatility before seminal events. The directional influence of such an event if/when remains to be seen.

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