Prices hardly ever just go straight down. It doesn't work like that.

It's called a bust. Look at gold in the last two years -- it got on a down-trend at some point, but was just moving randomly for quite a while after an initial crash. From an all-out, giant speculation mania, it usually takes a year or two. The Nikkei took a decade of repeatedly swinging about but ultimately dropping.

If this is going bust, it'll be a slow and painful process.