NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - In a month of mounting war woes and ho-hum economic and corporate news, stocks have been tanking. In fact, they're trading near enough to some key technical level booby traps, traders say, that should they trip the wires they'll be in danger of hitting even sharper declines.

Stocks hit multi-year lows by the close of trade Oct. 9, and then new lows again in intraday trade Oct. 10. After that sharp selloff, the market rallied until Nov. 27, turned lower and has been sinking since. Traders say that if stocks cross through those October lows, the slide that could result will be painful.

"The good news is that these October lows could turn out to be support levels, but the bad news is that the technical charts look worse now than they did in October," said Frank Gretz, a technical analyst at Shields & Co.

The Dow touched 7,197 in intraday trade Oct. 9, its lowest level since Oct. 27, 1997, when it closed at 7,161.15. Last Friday, it closed at 7,864.23, giving it less than 700 points of breathing room.

The nearest technical break point for the Dow is at 7,700, said Richard Suttmeier, a technical analyst and chief market strategist at Joseph Stevens. Right now 7,700 is a floor, Suttmeier said, but if we break it, it could be a ceiling.

"If we fall below 7,700, we're looking at a potential fall to 7,200, where it was in October," Suttmeier said. "That's a 500 point range, but it's one we could stay in for a while."

"What I don't want to see is the Dow fall below that October low, because then you're in danger of seeing a Dow 5,000 scenario," Suttmeier added, citing that as the next key floor for the industrial average.

For the Standard & Poor's 500, the risk is at 875. If stocks break through it, the low is 768, which the index hit intraday on Sept. 10.

For the Nasdaq, the risk is at 1,332. If the composite breaks through that, there's the risk of falling back to the Oct. 10 intraday low of 1,108.49.

There's definitely a lot more risk to the downside right now, Shields & Co.'s Gretz added, citing in particular risk for the 30 big cap traditional blue chip companies that comprise the Dow industrials.

Because of the war overhang, in the very near term, stocks are vulnerable to negative news and seem bent on overlooking positive news, a trend made clear last Friday when an improvement in monthly unemployment figures failed to turn the downward stock trend.

If war issues are contained, you could see stocks drift around their current levels for a while, Joseph Stevens' Suttmeier added. But equity markets are definitely at a greater risk now of hitting these lower levels than they have been in recent weeks.

"Everyone is waiting for the war on the belief that once it starts, stocks are going to shoot up, but there's a danger in betting with everyone else," Shields & Co.'s Gretz added.

"You've got to break out of this downward trend to get higher," Gretz said. "Sometimes, in order to do that, you've got to sell off a lot more first. We're just dribbling right now, but there's the potential to go a lot lower."