The Dow Jones industrial average dropped below 12,000 today, March 7. In technical terms, this is a significant move. On my point and figure charts this represents another sell signal and tells us that the average may have further to fall. Not that I want to be in the prediction business, but it appears there may be at least another 5% fall coming our way.

Additionally, the S&P 500 index also gave a sell signal when it broke below 1300 today. Remember that a large percentage of the S&P 500 index is made up of financial stocks and technology stocks, which have both been taking it on the chin.

It’s important to remember that “market bottoms” are a process — not an event. It’s very rare that the market will go down and snap right back. And when you consider some of the news headlines that are driving this market lower and lower, I don’t think we’ll get a turnaround anytime soon.

We are on defense, it’s time to focus on asset protection.