The smashdowns come from shorters that sell heavily into any price rises. The market won't go up significantly until they are sure the bear market is over. They've been getting burned lately as many of the whales whose coattails they rode all year have covered and are now waiting. Slowly but surely they will begin to turn bull, either by stupidly continuing to short after a huge capitulation and 85% price decrease and losing all their gains from the way down, or by realizing that they are now in the minority and go long.