Friday of Panic - Worldwide Indexes fall hard

Markets in Asia were mauled Friday, with Japanese, Indian and South Korean indexes slumping more than 9.5% each to end below crucial psychological milestones as fears of a global recession swept across the region. Benchmarks in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore and Taiwan dropped to their lowest levels in at least three years.

India's Sensitive Index hit the day's bottom at 8,566.82, a level it hasn't seen since November 2005, before ending down 11% at 8,701.07.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, which ended below the 14,000-point level a day earlier, fell past even the 13,000 milestone during the session for the first time since October 2004. The index ended down 8.3% at 12,618.38.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped as low as 3,830, the lowest it has seen since November 2004, before paring some losses to end at 3,869.40 for a loss of 2.6%.
Taiwan's Taiex ended at its lowest point of the day -- 4,579.62, a level it hasn't seen since May 2003.
Singapore's Straits Times index touched the day's bottom at 1,590.36, a level it hasn't seen since September 2003, before ending down 8.3% at 1,600.28.
China's Shanghai Composite and New Zealand's NZX 50 index were among the best performers of the day, with the Shanghai index ending down 1.9% at 1,839.62, while the NZX 50 index lost 1% to 2,778.55.

 

While this was the condition in Asia, the American markets are ready for a painful open. With the U.S. Futures limit down!

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 60 points to 855.20, the “limit down” for the contract by 5:33 a.m. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined 550 points, reaching its limit down of 8224 by 6:06 a.m. Market officials said the 6 percent limit down trading curb would not allow the contracts to decline further until the Wall Street opening at 9:30 a.m. Nasdaq 100 futures reached their limit down of 84.75 points, or 6.8 percent, to 1168.50 at 6:55 a.m.

Why am I writing this? to give you an idea of the panic that has crept into the mindset of the markets. Usually you would have heard the term "It is different this time" during bull markets.

I will take my chance and say that this Bear market will be unlike those that we have ever seen.

Let us follow the events and learn from them for the future.

Trading opportunities will abound for us irrespective of this panic. You just need to find the right trend and trade.