How Bad Was October for Stocks? Really Bad!

In a recent article, I noted that October was often a bad month for the markets.

This October was especially bad. Trillions of dollars of equity vanished faster than you could say "bailout."

How bad was it? Here are the unofficial numbers:

• Dow - down 13.79%
• S&P 500 - down 16.56%
• Nasdaq - down 16.84%

The question remains whether the bottom of the market was in there somewhere?

We may not know for some time, but the various rescue plans are beginning to kick in and if they were the correct medicine, we should know before the end of the year.