We should have seen it coming. At least that’s what a lot of investors (big-time ones and Robinhood speculators alike) are telling themselves right now with financial assets of all sorts in freefall this year. More than ten years of a bull market, a flood of money from the Federal Reserve, and a new world of technology in everything from money to cars and even art made the future seem limitless. Only now are some people finding out — many of them for the first time — that the laws of the market have not been repealed. Inflation, the war in Ukraine, and rising interest rates are pummeling the markets, and no one knows when it will end.
The S&P 500 — the stock index that most likely is in your 401(k) — is down 19 percent this year to date. That is perilously close to the official definition of a bear market: 20 percent or more from the peak. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ, where the lofty tech names trade, is down 28 percent this year, SPACs and crypto have collapsed, and private markets are seizing up.
Small wonder that searching for the market-top signals most people missed has become a favorite pastime among the financial mavens looking for black humor as a salve for their losses. This list is far from comprehensive, but from crypto to meme stocks to SPACs and beyond, here are some of the tells that are making the rounds among investors.
You can read the rest of my nymag.com story here:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/06/5-incredibly-obvious-market-top-signals-everyone-missed.html
Michelle Celarier 