Asset bubbles can halve in weeks: the bar-fire stampede analogy for panic selling

Svwang1 · x · 2026-11-13

Using the analogy of a nightclub fire where stampeding crowds jam the exits within 100 seconds, the author argues that asset bubbles often go from exposure to a 50%+ price collapse in just two or three weeks—sometimes a day or two. The first 10% dip is typically dismissed as a normal correction; past a critical point, funds and retail investors stampede for the same exit, feeding a panic spiral. He adds that the bulls cheering each other in the upswing become 'self-sabotaging teammates' in the crash, because their mental models can't grasp how fast euphoria flips to collapse. An attached banking app screenshot ($10,841.95 cash balance) adds nothing to the argument.

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