Climax or Selling Climax

The culmination or end of a protracted period of selling, characterized by high volume, forced margin selling, extreme degrees of negative market breadth (also in prior years a late ticker tape)--and panic. A climax marks the end of one of the late phases of a decline with an abrupt reversal. While the market may again retreat--sometimes even to new lows--the climax is an obvious milepost to the beginning of the end of the bear market.