In recent weeks I've been commenting on the relationship between price and volume in the current S&P 500, which has triggered several emails asking about volume in previous market downturns. So let's examine the three other bears in our Four Bad Bears lineup over the next few days, and then try to draw some conclusions.

First up is the Crash of 1929. Market pundits frequently talk about capitulation selling at market bottoms. As our chart of the Dow clearly illustrates, the opposite was the case in the epic bear that ushered in the Great Depression. Yes, the initial interim bottom saw capitulation selling. But there were another six legs down, each marked by decreasing selling pressure. In 1932, 34 months after the 1929 Dow peak, The ultimate bottom occurred on extremely weak volume.

Check back in another day or two for a look at the price-volume relationship during the 1973 Oil Crisis.