From London to New York the talk was of carnage, chaos and capitulation as traders rode plunging world stock markets to seeming Armageddon on "wipe-out Wednesday"
"It feel like we're discounting for the end of the world," said one trader in Italy's financial capital Milan as stocks across Europe plumbed new five years lows.
"I've learnt my lesson. I just sit here and do nothing. Any bid you put in is a time bomb waiting to go off," the trader added.
To put it in context, the amount lopped off the value of the top 600 European shares so far this year is equivalent to about half of industrial giant Germany's two trillion euro ($1,985 billion) gross domestic product in 2001.
London's FTSE stock index lost 2.1 per cent, the Paris CAC 40 index was down 1.51 per cent and Milan's MIB 30 was down 1.31 percent as markets around the world took another pasting.
In Dublin, in banking sector took 151.55 points off the ISEQ, leaving it at 3,953.48.
AIB lost 60c to 1120, lost Bank of Ireland eased 5c to 1045 and Anglo Irish tumbled 23c to 575. Irish Life is holding steady at 1315.
CRH and Elan slipped 15c to 1540 and 20c to 165 while First Active gained 10c to 430 ahead of publishing company results tomorrow.
"For the second time this year I nearly puked on my keyboard," a Moscow portfolio manager said as the benchmark RTS index fell 7.4 per cent to a four-month low. "Last time I felt like this, it ended up a great signal to buy," he added optimistically.
A Milanese trader used a similar but nautical analogy.
Mark Hoge, banking analyst at Bank of America, described the free-fall sell-off as "indiscriminate carnage."
Traders spoke of a total lack of confidence and of people milking their savings to maintain their lifestyles in the fervent belief the tail-spinning stock markets would recover and zoom skywards again.