Data On The Recent Stockmarket Downdraft

Some data on the recent stock market downdraft, assembled by my partner @skupor.

For the seven top consumer tech stocks (FB, TWTR, ZU, TSLA, LNKD, P, YELP): the median is off -37.4% from highs. For four of the top enterprise tech stocks (WDAY, SPLK, FEYE, NOW): the median is off 42.0% from highs. NASDAQ overall is off -8.5% from its high. Google is off -12.4% from its high; Netflix is off -27.8% from its high. Tech IPOs in 2014 so far; the median is off -22.0% from high but up 0.3% from the offering price (equals effectively flat to offering price).

People who want to see a tech bubble look at this data and say, “See! I told you it was a bubble, and now it’s crashing.” People who don’t want to see a tech bubble look at this data and say, “See! I told you it’s not a bubble; the market mostly still hates tech.” One cautionary note: This kind of market behavior with big up and down swings often correlates to high short activity.

When shorts take a big position, stocks fall. When shorts liquidate, stocks rise. When shorts are squeezed out, stocks really rise. It can be tricky to try to divine where the market wants the price to settle in the middle of a vigorous long/short battle, like arguably now.

Source Tweets: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10