Market panic
Mass selling in which the decision to sell is caused by the falling price itself rather than by news about the asset.
How to read the number
The mechanism is self-sustaining: a fall triggers margin calls and stop orders, and those produce the next wave of selling.
When the metric lies
Panic looks like a reappraisal of facts, but at its peak the price is set by whoever has run out of liquidity, not by whoever is right.
Also known as: panic selling