(Bloomberg) -- Cocoa prices turned lower on Wednesday, continuing a week of choppy trading that has seen a lack of liquidity fuel more extreme moves.

Futures in New York sank as much as 11%, reversing earlier gains in the day. A historic supply crunch driven by poor harvests in West Africa has caused the most-active contract to surge this year to an all-time high near $12,000 a ton last month. The rally has made it more expensive to maintain positions and prompted traders to pull out of the market, curbing liquidity and leaving cocoa vulnerable to huge price moves.

Read More: Cash Crunch Forces Cocoa Traders to Delay West African Purchases

Downward swings, though happening “in a rather dramatic way” because of low liquidity, could still be “mostly a correction” and prices could return near its record highs, said Jack Scoville, vice president at Price Futures Group. The market’s ability — or lack thereof — to “pile on through” will give a “clue as to whether this is more of a long-term change in the overall market direction or if it’s just a short-term correction,” he said in a Wednesday phone interview.

Wednesday’s decline follows a wild start to the week in which futures at one point slid as much as 27% to head for the biggest two-day decline on record before rebounding to settle higher on Tuesday. Traders used the big “pullback since Friday’s close to enter the long side of the market,” the Hightower Report said.

Markets could need a “new spark” like poorer weather conditions to rally back to record highs, said Judy Ganes, president at J. Ganes Consulting, adding that the market had already priced in the current shortage. 

“Bull markets need to be constantly fed to be sustained,” and the price surge has created a “vacuum” from a lack of new buyers, Ganes said Wednesday. “The market doesn’t need to fall on fresh news but on having already overpriced in the shortfall. As for renewed buying: there is an expression don’t try to catch a falling knife. So buyers step aside.”

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