Asymmetric Volatility Phenomenon - AVP

This very real "phenomenon" refers to how much more volatile (hard to predict, less stable, basically wild and crazy) markets are when declining, as opposed to rising. One explanation is behavioral psychology...when the economy starts to struggle, people start selling off stock abruptly and with more panic than numerical logic, fearing it might drop even lower than it already has.

Basically, when stock prices start to vary, and people start to panic, it spreads like panic in a crowded theatre after someone hollers "Fire!"

Meanwhile, when stocks are going up, people can get unreasonable about it (that's how bubbles form), but they do so in a more orderly way. There's less chance that people will start tripping over themselves to get into a place than to get out of it.