Melt Up (Meltup)
A “melt up” (or “melt-up” or “meltup”) is the opposite of a stock market “meltdown.” The term “meltdown” had been in use since at least the early 1980s, being a stock market parallel to a nuclear meltdown. The stock market drop of October 1987 was widely reported as a “meltdown.”
The term “melt up” came into use by at least May 11, 1989, when a New York (NY) Times headline was, “Nervous Wall St. Fears a ‘Melt-Up.’” A May 30, 1989 newspaper article described both terms:
“A melt-up is the opposite, a wildly excessive rise caused by panic buying and leading almost inevitably to—what else?—a melt-down.”
Investopedia
What Does Melt Up Mean?
A dramatic and unexpected improvement in the investment performance of an asset class driven partly by a stampede of investors who don’t want to miss out on its rise rather than by fundamental improvements in the economy. Gains created by a melt up are considered an unreliable indication of the direction the market is ultimately headed, and melt ups often precede melt downs.
DaveManuel.com
Definition of Market Melt-Up
(...)
In a “market meltdown”, major indexes (such as the DJIA and NASDAQ) in the United States), may fall anywhere from 10-50%.
A “melt up” is the exact opposite - a “melt up” occurs when the markets suddenly explode higher.
A “melt up” might be triggered by:
1. Decreasing interest rates.
2. Strong earnings reports from prominent companies.
3. Economic recovery.
MSN Encarta
melt·up [ mélt ùp ] (plural melt·ups)
noun
FINANCE sudden market increase: a sudden unusual and dramatic increase in the value of a market
(Oxford English Dictionary)
to melt down
trans. To liquefy (metal or a metal object) by heat for use as a raw material; to render (fat, etc.); (humorously in extended use) to convert (property, etc.) into cash. Also fig.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Astrophel & Stella (1591) 45 When sorrow (vsing my owne Siers might) Melts downe his lead into my boyling brest.
1599 H. Porter Pleasant Hist. Two Angrie Women of Abington sig. E3v, Her wit’s a sunne, that melts him downe like butter.
to melt up
trans. = to melt down at sense 3c.
1648 J. Mayne Amorovs Warre iii. vi. 41 The King is Just, Sir, and allowes us pay, Which you melt up by th’way.
1786 T. Jefferson in Papers (1954) X. 54 Let them melt up their eagles & add the mass to the distributable fund that their descendants may have no temptation to hang them in their button holes.
Google News Archive
23 October 1983, Ocala (FL) Star-Banner, “Big Buildup Over The Build-Down” by William Safire, pg. 5E, col. 1:
Word-coiners often find, to their dismay, some earlier use of their baby in a different context. Meltdown was an important new term in 1963, referring to the ultimate accident in a nuclear reactor and the fear that it could sizzle its way through the earth clear down to China. It is used metaphorically today throughout the language. In “Dismantling America: the Rush to Deregulate,” by Susan and Martin Tolchin, a chapter title is “Political Meltdown.” However, the first use of the word was in March 1937, in The Ice Cream Trade Journal: “Due to the clean meltdown…a cooler sensation results in the mouth than with gelatin ice cream.”
The alert reader is probably wondering: “If buildup led to build-down, why hasn’t meltdown led to melt-up?” Good question, alert reader, because in linguistics, just about everything that goes up has come down. However, the word formed by substituting a down for an up or vice versa is seldom opposite in meaning.
(...)
Melt-up is troublesome, however. An accident in a nuclear reactor in China?
New York (NY) Times
MARKET PLACE; Nervous Wall St. Fears a ‘Melt-Up’
By Anise C. Wallace
Published: May 11, 1989
ALMOST 19 months ago, stocks plummeted in what was often called a market ‘‘meltdown.’‘
But even though prices have since recovered much of the ground lost in the crash, few expect a repeat. In fact, unlikely as it may sound, some Wall Street professionals are now anxious about a quite different possibility: a market ‘‘melt-up,’’ in which stock prices explode upward, propelled by program trading and huge amounts of idle cash.
30 May 1989, Winnipeg (Manitoba) Free Press, “Dreadful M-words exaggerate economic perils” by Jack McArthur, pg. 26, col. 1:
A minority of analysts is telling us of risks of melt-downs or melt-ups in markets.
You’ll recall the dreadful melt-down in the unprecedented, unreasoning crash of stock markets in a few days in 1987. Or in the globally vital U.S. dollar late in both ‘87 and ‘88.
A melt-up is the opposite, a wildly excessive rise caused by panic buying and leading almost inevitably to—what else?—a melt-down.
Time magazine
Y2 Buy Stocks
By Daniel Kadlec Monday, Dec. 13, 1999
(...)
John Cleland, chief investment strategist at fund company Security Benefit Group, is so convinced that stocks will “melt up” next month that he has begun a special marketing campaign to attract new money by year’s end. “Y2K will be the biggest nonevent in history,” he predicts. “The door will not be wide enough for everyone who wants to buy stocks in January.”
I’m not so sure about his melt-up prediction: a 20% Dow gain in the first quarter, Cleland forecasts. But I buy into the case for a strong market big time. Many companies fund their pension obligations in January, giving the market a boost. And there really is a January effect. Stocks that had been sold purely to lock in tax benefits the previous year tend to get noticed and bid higher early in the New Year, often resulting in a rally led by small stocks. There will have been plenty of tax selling by the end of this year. Roughly 60% of all stocks are down for the year, according to Salomon Smith Barney.
OCLC WorldCat record
The Trader - Could stocks “melt up)” as they did in ‘03’? And, whither REIT shares?
Author: n Michael Santoli
Publisher: Chicopee, Mass. : Dow Jones & Co., 1994-
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: Barron’s. (September 20, 2004): MW2
Database: ArticleFirst
OCLC WorldCat record
Money & Investing: Portfolio Strategy / The Coming Melt-Up
Author: Kenneth L Fisher
Publisher: [New York, N.Y. : Forbes Inc., 1918-
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: Forbes. (November 29, 2004): 60
Database: ArticleFirst
National Inflation Association
Date: May 13th, 2010
User: InflationUS
Title: Meltup
Description: NIA believes Meltup is the most important economic documentary ever produced in world history. The Second American Revolution has begun! Please share this documentary with all of your friends and family members immediately!
Zero Hedge
MELTUP - “The Beginning Of US Currency Crisis And Hyperinflation”, The Viral Video
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/16/2010 06:08 -0500
Must watch hour long video from Inflation.us that is now making the viral rounds, explaining what everyone on this website understand, in simple language. Please forward to your friends and neighbors. Inflationist or deflationist, the facts behind this video are undeniable. It is time for the truth about our economy to break through the propaganda machine.