"How about that head & shoulders pattern"
Technical analysis is more of a part of the conversation than ever in mainstream markets. In today's main equity market rout recap at Bloomberg, just 9 paragraphs into the story, it says this:
"Several technical charts are also sounding warning signals that the worst of equities turmoil may not be over. A downward sloping neckline in a head-and-shoulders pattern have formed in the Dow industrial average. The index and the Dow Jones Transportation Average also breached the low from last October, flashing a so-called Dow Theory sell signal."
The Dow is your grandfather's index but I expect this is what they're looking at.
The measured target of the move would be another 2.9% decline.
The way I see it, the next 45 minutes are make-or-break time for stocks. If they can't stage a bit of a rebound over the New York lunchbreak then that's all she wrote.