I was busy today and did not spend much time looking at the market – until the last 45 minutes.  And frankly, the movements are absolutely nuts. 

The Dow fell 470 points in 11 minutes from 3:48 to 3:59.  This was after a 270 point move up move over 5 minutes starting at 3:10.

But this is the norm.  There was a 235 point drop in the last 15 minutes on Monday followed by a 760 point upswing in the last two hours of Tuesday.

This is insane.

The button-pushers - aka program traders, probably hedge-funds - and margin clerks rule the market.  And they are often executing trades into vacuums.

EDIT - I wanted to post a few graphs on volatility, but I am unable to at the moment.  I will try to get them up tomorrow.