The so-called Hindenburg Omen, an obscure technical indicator that purportedly precedes market crashes, has some Wall Street analysts and investors very jittery. All the conditions for the omen were reportedly met last Thursday — and if it repeats in 36 days, the odds of a really big market crash jump considerably, according to believers. What are the chances the omen — named after the German zeppelin that flamed out over New Jersey in 1937 — is signaling a similar crash-and-burn for U.S. stocks? (Watch Glenn Beck warn about the omen)
The "Hindenburg Omen" is bunk: You can't blame anxious investors for trying to "make sense of an erratic stock market," says Sarah McBride at NPR. But the Hindenburg Omen, like other market "conspiracy theories," isn't actually all that accurate. Given the omen's hits and misses, relying on it "is the stock market equivalent of... claiming that Queen Elizabeth is a member of a shadowy group of lizard people."
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