Let's see, it would be stupid of me to point to a particular reason, but: Hawkish Fed (rates complex first to sniff this out) Incoming data not so hot in all aspects Evergrande et al Edit: And oh course the periodic debt ceiling debacle that US politicians insist on having ...and this in a setup that on quite a few measures exceed 2000 mania. Anyone who's been in this long enough knows that's not enough to make top calls though.
I found a good enough reason to sell certain new contract highs or buy new contract lows back in the 1990's, and it became quickly better when I learned to hedge. Set one target based on margin to liquidate a percentage and rest have a breakeven stops. Markets go up and down seldom no particular reason at extremes, at some point when "Joe Average" is getting hurt in their retirement accounts, market has already plunged a good amount and then there is so called reasons. Some might say hourly wages at fast food places are paying $15 and still can't young people to get a job. I love it. Markets are like potholes, some deeper than others, get fixed for awhile and then freeze, before you know it a deep pothole. Always found it funny no one is screaming when markets going up too fast.
There is a delicate irony about that. Our favorite no-hold-barred bull Rickshaw Man was screaming that it was too vertical not long ago. I guess right before Labor Day. But he went long anyway. So did I. Alas.
Imagine if you bought and sold at the ideal moments on the S&P chart, you would be a millionaire in a day. If you bought enough put options. I could tell you why the market went down.
For each contract there is a buyer and a seller. So if there is a massive sell, there has to be a massive buy too. If not there wouldn't be a transaction.
More accurately perhaps is that the sellers had a higher sense of urgency in that they were willing to accept lower prices. Nonetheless, calling down days "selling" is commonly accepted parlance even if it strictly speaking is incorrect.
Range bound consolidation after a nice run up subject to some pressure from Evergrande. Likely renewed buying roughly November-January. Unclear what will occur in the immediate but a sector based approach eliminates most downside risk.
%% OLD ag pattern; people are used to selling red apples \SEPT. Dump a lot of anything in SEPT \market price comes down. Bonds are correlated to itself. Some elite asked a profitable Dow daytrader ''dont you ever look @ price of oil??'' The profitable Dow daytrader said ''NO, Dow is correlated to itself'' ,
%% TRUE; but we commonly call a down day[ @ close], down, down volume, sell volume.Or put another way more sellers wanted out @ any price, so price closed down. Default doesnt have to be bearish, market uptrended good during Trump gov shutdown. SEPT stock sells/ETF sells are common pattern in SEPT stocks\ regardless of bond downtrends, mr Tarzan....................................................... NOT a prediction , not bank insured, not a bond buyer today.