Living With 1999's Evil Twin

A wise man once said the bear market wouldn't end until the level of fear was commensurate with the level of greed evident in the early part of 2000. After yet another day of debilitating losses for major averages, some traders were wondering, with some desperation: Are we there yet?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.1% to 8813.50, the Dow's first close below 9000 since Oct. 2, 2001. The S&P 500 shed 3.4% to 920.47, breaking its October 1998 intraday low of 923.32 and closing at its lowest level since October 1997. The Nasdaq Composite shed 2.5% to 1346.02, just above its Oct. 8, 1998, intraday low of 1343.87 and its lowest close since May 1997.

Trading volume accelerated from yesterday's losses with 1.8 billion shares traded on the Big Board, where downside volume was 86% of the total. Negative breadth also increased as losers bested gainers by nearly 3 to 1 in Big Board activity and by 2 to 1 in over-the-counter activity, where 1.6 billion shares traded. Downside volume was 75% of the total in over-the-counter trading. ...