i don't think sequester really has anything to do with it. I have been watching the market since I was little kid.
You gotta realize that the market is a group of people. It's a herd, and if you want to get to the water hole to drink as much as you want, you have to get the water hole before anyone else. You know what I mean?
It's not just stocks. My dad was into almost every get-rich trend since the 80's, and I see same pattern with stocks, Comic books in the early 90's, Beanie babies, baseball cards, residential property and whatever.
There is a group people out there that I called "sheep", and I don't mean that in a way that is insulting. It's a descriptive term. They don't have a risk preference that is high enough to make Economic profits( look it up). They prefer to see what their neighbors do or rely on word of mouth from "the guy at work". Pretty soon, you will start to see the mail man or the cafeteria lady talk about flipping houses, Buying gold, or Selling stocks. That's when you know, the market is going to pop.
The people post on The Coli or Sohh are mostly within this above mention group. When you see people on sohh, talk about Stocks or anything like that, we are in the danger zone. I mean you can have all the stupid Technical Statistics or Fundamental ratios in the world. If you don't understand people, and their predictable thought patterns you WILL never make money in the stock market or any market.