February 2026 sell-off: dated inputs are not a trading playbook

A dated correction preserves source-scoped index and company-guidance records while withdrawing unsupported stress tests, recovery paths and allocation thresholds.

What changed in this article

Editorial correction · 9 September 2026. The original article was published on 14 February 2026 and stress-tested panic-selling, holding and a rules-based playbook against historical data and the February tape. It reported an 8–14 percentage-point 12-month gap, software and index drawdowns, an Alphabet capex range, scenario recovery levels, sector rotations and prescriptive exposure/leverage thresholds. The page did not preserve the historical playbook rows, instrument series, benchmark, data vintages, execution assumptions or calculation output. Those strategy, return, recovery, threshold and causal claims are withdrawn. The original URL and publication date remain unchanged.

This correction records dated market inputs and their definitions. It does not prescribe sizing, leverage, liquidation or re-entry.

What the dated records establish

Source date and record	Dated fact	Boundary
31 December 2025, 5 February and 13 February 2026 · S&P 500 series at FRED	FRED’s S&P 500 series is a daily closing price index sourced to S&P Dow Jones Indices and excludes dividends. Retrieved observations were 6,845.50 on 31 December, 6,798.40 on 5 February and 6,836.17 on 13 February.	These are index-level observations with an explicit price-series convention. They do not establish a playbook return, a recovery period or a tradable portfolio result.
4 February 2026 · Alphabet 2025 Q4 earnings call transcript	Alphabet’s investor-relations transcript is dated 4 February 2026 at 1:30 p.m. US/Pacific and states that 2026 capital-expenditure investments were anticipated in the range of $175 billion to $185 billion.	This is company guidance. It is not a market-return explanation, valuation conclusion or portfolio instruction.
13 February 2026 · LPL Research weekly market performance	LPL’s dated table, sourced to Bloomberg at 2:51 p.m. ET, reports a week-ending market snapshot including S&P 500, Nasdaq, Russell 2000 and sector figures.	A published snapshot does not supply the original article’s stress-test paths, IGV price series, benchmark rules or recovery calculations.

These records support a dated chronology of market inputs and company guidance. They do not validate the original playbook comparison.

What is withdrawn

The 8–14pp stress-test result, panic/hold/rules ranking, IGV drawdown, scenario index levels, historical recovery times, annual turnover drag, sector causal read-through, one-theme cap, leverage rule, staged-entry thresholds and “permanent damage” conclusion are not verified findings. No replacement strategy or current market instruction is published.

The neutral audit practice is retained: identify the instrument, frequency, return type, benchmark and information cutoff before comparing paths.

Minimum register for a future sell-off study

Record the index/security identifier, exchange and currency; price or total-return convention; exact timestamps and data vintage; benchmark; historical stress-path inclusion rule; playbook actions and execution assumptions; fees, spreads, taxes and leverage; sector membership; and complete calculations. Keep company guidance separate from market outcomes.

Original publication: 14 February 2026. Correction: 9 September 2026. AI-assisted source checking and writing; no independent human expert review. This page is educational market research, not personalized investment advice.