The stock market indices started off with a little gap up, got up to near resistance and rolled over hard. When they failed to follow through to the downside and reversed, they ended up in a strong rally taking the Nasdaq 100 from 2210 to 2278. That was 68 points in an almost vertical ascent. The S&P 500 at that point went from 1162 to 1202. In the last half hour they reversed sharply and plunged from 2278 down to 2252, a 26-point drop on the NDX. The S&P 500 sharply sold off from the 1202 area down to around 1189.

So it was a very steep sell-off very late in the session and may well have ended this two-and-a-half day rally.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 140.88 at 11,246.73, 140 points off its high. The S&P 500 up 15.81 at 1188.68, 14 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 up 32.17 at 2252.75, 25 points off its high.

Advance-declines were sharply higher, and although they came way off their high they still ended up a little less than 3 to 1 positive on New York Stock Exchange and about 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was about 6 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of 1.17 billion shares traded. Nasdaq traded nearly 2 billion shares to the upside and 354 million to the downside, and had a 6 to 1 positive volume ratio. Total volume for Nasdaq was about 2 1/3 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result of the late sell off, was mixed on the day, although there were some outstanding issues. Leading the way by far was Sequans Communications S.A. Ame (SQNS), which exploded, running to as high as 8 3/4. At that point it was up about 4.40, but gave back some to close up 3.01 to 7.44 on a whopping 7.1 million shares. That’s significant for a stock that usually trades on average around 565,000 shares. Vermillion, Inc. (VRML) was up 55 cents to 3.00 even, or 22 1/2%, on 1.3 million shares traded. That’s another one that had huge volume today.

Several low-priced stocks were among top gainers, including Oxigene Inc. (OXGN), up 28 cents to 1.53, or 22.4%, and Spherix Inc. (SPEX), up 27 cents to 2.13, or 14 1/2%. Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SOMX) gained 20 cents to 1.20, or 20%, Coldwater Creek Inc. (CWTR) 29 cents to 1.71, Procera Networks, Inc. (PKT) 80 cents to 8.45, or 10 1/2%, and Primo Water Corporation (PRMW) 66 cents to 6.95, or 10 1/2%. Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (FSL) advanced 1.00 to 13.23, or 8%, with Silicon Motion Technology Corp. (SIMO), a swing trade of ours, up 74 cents to 12.60 after reaching as high as 12.74 today.

Swing trade position Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) reached over 24 today to complete our swing trade, and then closed back at 23.15, up 2.23, or 10.7%, on over 1 million shares.

In addition, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 4.68 to 389.30, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) up 3.04 to 222.57, Google Inc. (GOOG) 2.55 to 532.07, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 3.81 to 167.24, priceline.com Incorporated (PCLN) 6.53 to 529.56, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) 4.50 to 315.91.

On the downside, the ultra-short ETFs had another bad day. VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was down 3.73 to 64.16 and got as low as 64.25. The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) dropped 2.36 to 42.63, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ), which got as low as 55.86, closed at 57.75, down 2.28.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down after a gap to the upside, rolled over hard but held, and then rallied the rest of the day, until the last half hour when they sold off very sharply.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow and whether or not today was a reversal.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.