Chips Fall Where They May, the Stocks Are Still Up

But at this point, the suggestion that the market set a bear-market bottom on Nov. 20 has as much appeal as it ever has. The Nasdaq is now 21% off that date's closing low.

And certainly there was room -- and expectations -- for a snapback. The tech index had dropped by two-thirds in the span of eight weeks beginning Sept. 26, and stocks such as Intel were looking too cheap to ignore at $12.

However, within the extremes of market volatility, there's not much to suggest that investors in semiconductor stocks have any fundamental reason to expect the hard times to be over. The past two days have only confirmed that there are two kinds of companies now: those that have no idea yet how bad it will be, and those that are certain of it.

As always, valuation strategies favor the longer-term investor. As for everyone else, swings that both give and take away profitable trades are the rule for the foreseeable future.