The Worst Year Ever: S&P 500's Worst Declines

With a 38.9% decline year to date, 2008 is shaping up to be the S&P 500's worst year ever.  At this point in the year, the next closest years in terms of declines were 1931 and 1937.  In both of these years, the S&P 500 was down 31% through October 22nd. 

Since its peak in October 2007, the S&P has now declined by 42.3%.  On a historical basis, this is the sixth worst decline in the S&P 500 without a rally of 20% or more.  As shown in the list below, outside of the Great Depression, the only period where the S&P 500 had a greater decline was during the bear market of 1973/1974.  Historically, it hasn't been much worse.

Subscribe to Bespoke Premium to receive more in-depth research from Bespoke. 

Comments

[al robertson]

the S&P 500 as an index did not exist prior to 1957

[Sam]

Awesome. Worst year ever. Blah

[Generic Viagra]

The worst year ever? You tell me! My little bakery in the state of New York fell on bankrupt because of the economy issues in the last couple of years.