market panic
Investors flee simultaneously
Market panic is a sudden, widespread rush to sell investments as fear overtakes rational analysis.
Unlike ordinary downturns, panic involves contagion—sellers trigger more sellers, prices collapse faster than fundamentals justify, and the mood becomes self-reinforcing.
The 1929 crash began as a correction and became a market panic.
The term implies irrationality: cooler heads see opportunity where panicked investors see only disaster.
- crashSudden violent impact
- Black Monday1987 stock market collapse
- flash crashSudden, brief securities collapse
- selloffMass asset liquidation
- plungeSudden steep descent
freefall · bloodbath · stampede · bank run · contagion · collapse · fear · chaos · volatility · circuit breaker · downturn · liquidation · fire sale · capitulation · meltdown · dead cat bounce · recession · flight
- economyGDP, money, inflation, inflation rate, GNP
- economic downturnsrecession, deflation, economic collapse, depression, fiscal crisis
- financial crisesfinancial collapse, bank run, economic collapse, bank failure, bank failures
- fiscal crisesdebt crisis, budget crisis, fiscal crisis, fiscal emergency, budget deficit
- Market Crashescrash, collapse, Black Monday, Black Tuesday, Black Thursday
- market risksvolatility, systemic failure, financial crisis, contagion, credit crisis
market panicinvestor confidence
Faith in financial prospects
irrational exuberance · bull market · buying frenzy · risk appetite · animal spirits
market panicbull market
Period of rising prices
market rally · buying frenzy · melt-up · bull run · speculative bubble
market, panic, markets, marketed, marketing, marketer, marketable, marketplace, supermarket