Business

Is this what happens when the bagholder-of-last-resort is removed from the market?

As we detailed earlier in the year, institutions and hedge funds have been using this exuberant rally in stocks to dump their holdings to retail admirers.

So what happens when arguably the largest retail brokerage - where all the "useful idiots" reside - goes down?

As The Wall Street Journal reports, a technical error at Fidelity Investments on Wednesday blocked millions of customers from their online brokerage accounts.

CNBC busily defending the utter bloodbath in semi stocks as nothing to worry about... but this is the biggest plunge for these market darlings since Brexit (June 2016)...

...and just happens to have occurred as the index finally cleared the 2000 dotcom peak...

FANG Stocks are getting smashed - the biggest drop since Feb 2016...

The key factor is that Momentum is getting monkey-hammered...

For the biggest drop since the election...

And meanwhile - Nasdaq VIX has exploded...

Authored by Peter Tchir via Forbes.com,

We have all heard the VIX or volatility index referred to as the Fear Index or Fear Gauge.  Rising VIX was meant to signal fear in the markets.  That is how most investors have historically thought about VIX and traded it (directly or through Exchange Traded Products).

Last night's API-reported surprise crude build sparked selling that not even Russia/Saudi jawboning could rescue, but DOE data showed the exact opposite with a big crude draw and even bigger gasoline draw. Added to a new record high in US crude production and RBOB is fading and WTI is not rallying.

API

This is not supposed to happen...

Liquidity?

As Nasdaq tumbles, Bitcoin is air-pocketing...

But notably Bitcoin followed, did not lead...

The tumble in Bitcoin appears to have hit Nvidia hard...