Global stock markets get a reality check

The Dow has taken a hammering. Is this the beginning of a bear market in stocks? John C Burford examines the charts to find out.

I have a feeling that this week will go down in stock market history as marking many all-time highs. Yesterday's panic selling was a slap in the face to the bulls and a game-changer, I believe.

There has been much comment on the peculiar nature of the US stock market rally in recent months. Much publicity has been given to the low volatility, the complacency, the lack of any serious declines and the huge and growing divergence between the booming stock market and the lackluster underlying US economy.

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John is is a British-born lapsed PhD physicist, who previously worked for Nasa on the Mars exploration team. He is a former commodity trading advisor with the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and worked in a boutique futures house in California in the 1980s.

 

He was a partner in one of the first futures newsletter advisory services, based in Washington DC, specialising in pork bellies and currencies. John is primarily a chart-reading trader, having cut his trading teeth in the days before PCs.

 

As well as his work in the financial world, he has launched, run and sold several 'real' businesses producing 'real' products.