WhyItDropped

Nasdaq · November 13, 2008

The intraday reversal on the Nasdaq

+6.50%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

A halving that took seventeen months

near the end of it · 2007-10-31 → 2009-03-09, -55.63% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • On 13 November 2008 the Nasdaq rose 6.5% in a single day
  • Intraday it fell to a multi-year low, then turned and closed sharply higher
  • Reversals like this happen when everyone who wanted out is out. With no supply left, small buying moves price a long way
  • The government was also shifting its rescue funds from buying bad assets to recapitalising banks around then
  • It was not the bottom. Days later, carmaker failure fears sent it down hard again
  • The Nasdaq's final low came four months later in March 2009

Sources

Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is written from the sources listed above.