Market Volume Turns up to Eleven

By Murray Dawes, Friday, 06 February 2026

As predicted last week, a sharp correction has begun in markets with gold, silver, and bitcoin plummeting. The plunge in software stocks is turning the volume up to eleven, so it’s time to hunt for opportunities.

Last week the thumbnail on our Closing Bell YouTube video said, ‘This Could Get Ugly’.

I think it is a fairly apt description of what happened this week.

After a lot of umming and ahhing over the last few months, the market finally snapped.

With gold, silver, and now bitcoin getting hammered you have to wonder whether hedge funds are now raising cash to cover margins.

One of the most crowded trades in the US would have to be the software companies that are currently falling off a cliff.

Rather than being a rational reappraisal of their prospects as AI starts to disrupt them, I think it is becoming a case of forced sellers creating more forced sellers.

Going forward, the trick will be finding the companies that won’t be disrupted.

The ones with a wide moat, solid network effects and sticky clients.

The dust will settle at some point, but the charts are pointing to further volatility ahead before it’s time to back up the truck to buy the fallen angels.

Charlie is away and there is a lot to discuss this week, so we have shifted the viewer stock request session to next week. In future months we will stick to the first Friday of each month for viewer requests.

I hope the warnings we have given over the past few weeks have been useful for you. Volatile markets can be stressful, but they also lead to great opportunities if you remain standing at the end of them.

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Regards,

Murray Dawes,
Retirement Trader and International Stock Trader

All advice is general advice and has not taken into account your personal circumstances.

Please seek independent financial advice regarding your own situation, or if in doubt about the suitability of an investment.

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Murray Dawes is our resident expert trader and portfolio manager. He is a former Sydney Futures Exchange floor trader who went on to design custom trading systems and strategies for ultra-wealthy clients (including one of Australia’s richest families). Today, his mission is to help ordinary Aussie investors make profitable investments, while expertly managing risk.

He uses his proprietary system for his more conversative and longer-term-focused service Retirement Trader…and then applies the same system to the ultra-speculative end of the Australian market in Fat Tail Microcaps (this service is strictly limited and via invitation only).

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All advice is general in nature and has not taken into account your personal circumstances. Please seek independent financial advice regarding your own situation, or if in doubt about the suitability of an investment.

The value of any investment and the income derived from it can go down as well as up. Never invest more than you can afford to lose and keep in mind the ultimate risk is that you can lose whatever you’ve invested. While useful for detecting patterns, the past is not a guide to future performance. Some figures contained in our reports are forecasts and may not be a reliable indicator of future results. Any actual or potential gains in these reports may not include taxes, brokerage commissions, or associated fees.