The thing I find interesting is how thin the order book is:
https://www.bitstamp.net/market/order_book/
It shows that you don't need to sell a particularly large block of btc to substantially move the price in either direction. If one big buyer jumped into the market it could easily move the price $50+. This shows that bitcoin is still immature and in its infancy. The more the liquidity of bitcoin grows, the less this kind of volatility will plague the market.