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The so-called Hindenburg Omen, an obscure technical indicator that purportedly precedes market crashes, has some Wall Street analysts and investors very jittery. All the conditions for the

omen were reportedly met last Thursday — and if it repeats in 36 days, the odds of a really big market crash jump considerably, according to believers. What are the chances the omen — named

after the German zeppelin that flamed out over New Jersey in 1937 — is signaling a similar crash-and-burn for U.S. stocks? (Watch Glenn Beck warn about the omen) THE "HINDENBURG

OMEN" IS BUNK: You can't blame anxious investors for trying to "make sense of an erratic stock market," says Sarah McBride at NPR. But the Hindenburg Omen, like other

market "conspiracy theories," isn't actually all that accurate. Given the omen's hits and misses, relying on it "is the stock market equivalent of... claiming that

Queen Elizabeth is a member of a shadowy group of lizard people." "Markets and conspiracy theories" SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the

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best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. THE NUMBERS

DON'T LIE: Dismiss this "scary" and "ominous" technological benchmark at your own peril, says Jim Fink in _Investing Daily_. The rationale behind the Hindenburg Omen

makes sense — when the market has lots of stocks hitting 52-week highs and 52-week lows at the same time, that kind of confusion portends trouble — and "the last two confirmed

Hindenburg Omens" have been followed by real "doozies" of crashes. "Hindenburg Omen: Prepare for a stock market decline" THE RECORD IS SCARY, BUT MIXED: Whether or

not you buy into the Omen's predictive abilities "in signaling a looming market crash," says Tom Petruno in the _Los Angeles Times_, "may depend on your idea of what

constitutes a 'crash.'" The 30 or fewer "Hindenburg sightings" include "every major stock market decline" since the "genuine crash of October

1987," but also some "blink-and-you-miss-them" dips. "Just what the stock market didn't need: A Hindenburg sighting"