Capitulation

Ask any parent of a toddler. They can't wait for their children's capitulation during the terrible twos. The kids throw the most ridiculous display of theatrics, disproportionately reacting to a green bean on their plate, or getting an orange jelly bean when they wanted pink. And then they would realize their hopeless situation. They aren't going to win the argument. They will have to eat the vegetable. All the pink jelly beans are gone. They can't advance their cause. They admit defeat and sink into a compliant, sniffling lump.

Capitulation in the context of the market isn't all that different. The irrational overreaction of the investor is similar to that of the toddler. Panic overtakes logic, usually towards the end of a market collapse. Some market declines are orderly, but in the case of capitulation, the asset is in distress, prices fall, the volume is high and the confidence in recovery is completely decimated.

Investors sell in a panic, are reacting with fear and hopelessness, abandoning their investment like a pink-craving toddler offered an orange jelly bean. Hard to identify in the moment, capitulation is almost always apparent in retrospect.