This was 1990, after all, when the stock market seemed to be nothing more than one giant downtick.

He said it would cost his company only a "very, very slight downtick" in revenue.

We're on a long-term downtick, and a lot of lenders have gotten burned."

But an executive at a rival network said he thought the show had "at least one more downtick" in its run.

Helping was a downtick in interest rates.

I'm not concerned about the downtick we've had."

Such program traders are not permitted to sell stock on a downtick, which is when a stock's last sale is lower than the one before.

Any tick-sensitive instruction can be entered at the trader's option, for example buy on downtick, although these orders are rare.

They suspect that a downtick in the economy or a rise in interest rates could send many of these highly leveraged enterprises spinning.

With the Dow down 50, the Big Board's 50-point rule went into operation, prohibiting program traders from selling on a downtick.

"It is encouraging to see the economy adding new private sector jobs and the slight downtick in the unemployment rate," said Congressman Lankford.

The New York Stock Exchange intervened instantly under its 50-point rule preventing program traders from selling on a downtick.

Under the exchange's 50-point rule, whenever the market moves 50 points, program traders are not allowed to sell stock on a downtick or buy on an uptick.

At fund-raisers, Mr. Bush prefers to talk about the uptick in the economy, not the downtick in Iraq.

By 3:31, with the Dow down 50 points, the New York Stock Exchange intervened, prohibiting program selling on a downtick.

That is because the rule requiring that short sales not be made on a downtick, a price lower than the last different one, will not be in effect.

This prevents the possibility of unlimited gains through high frequency trading: buying the stock just before each uptick in the market and selling before each downtick.

CNBC superimposes minute-by-minute Dow industrial figures, allowing viewers access to every uptick or downtick.

"If I saw a downtick, I would want to wait to assign it any significance," Mr. McKelvey said.

Under the rule, program sellers are not permitted to use index arbitrage on a downtick until the Dow climbs to within 25 points of the Dow's prior close.

Mr. Farrell, for whom millions of dollars can ride on every uptick or downtick of the currency market, is an eager member of this new television audience.

Unlike stocks, they are not subject to the downtick rule, which prohibits shorting a stock at a lower price than the preceding sale to prevent negative sentiment from snowballing.

And in another Broadway downtick, this week, "Sunset Boulevard" for the first time resorted to selling at the half-price TKTS booth.

(A chartist is someone who charts the price fluctuation of a particular commodity or stock by using x's and o's to mark each price uptick and downtick.)

An uptick is when the last (non-zero) price change is positive, and a downtick is when the last (non-zero) price change is negative.