market bottomed last week?

The Dow finished Friday down 37.5% from its Oct. 9, 2007, closing high; the S&P 500 is down 39.9% from its high on the same day. The Nasdaq is still down 40% from its Oct. 31, 2007, high.

But it is possible that a bottom for the market was put in a week ago.

One prominent chart watcher, Dan Sullivan, editor of The Chartist, said there's "an excellent chance" that the Dow's Oct. 10 intraday low of 7,882.51 will prove to be the market bottom.

You say you missed that low? A lot of people did. It occurred almost immediately after the market opened that morning. Stocks promptly rebounded, with the Dow actually going positive about a half-hour later. Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange actually cheered when the Dow went positive.

The Dow came close to matching the opening low before closing that day down 128 points. But it stayed above the low, and that's important. In fact, with Friday's close, the major indexes are all 10% higher than their Oct. 10 lows.

So, if a week ago was the bottom, should you buy?

Sullivan emphatically does not think so. "Given the incredible volatility, it is simply way too early to re-enter the market," he wrote in his Friday newsletter. "Our advice is to continue to stay on the sidelines in money market funds."

* * *

But here's the quote from the hotline:

"We indicated on yesterday's hotline that we expected last Friday's intraday lows to hold up over the next three months and as an outside possibility they might represent the extreme lows of the entire bear market. This is based on what we felt was the outright capitulation during the opening minutes of trading last Friday, October 10th. The areas of support are the Dow - 7,882, S&P 500 - 839, Nasdaq - 1,542 and the Russell 2000 - 468. Despite today's carnage we expect these support areas to hold."

[Not sure if that "outside possibility" = his "excellent chance".]