Halloween 2014: Another Tricky October
Seemingly every year as we roll into October the market turns to a state of dread. Will we see another October event in the market that causes a massive loss in wealth as the market sells off? The first October event was Black Tuesday on October 24, 1929, which proved to be the harbinger of the Great Depression. In more recent times, flash back to Monday October 19, 1987, and relive Black Monday, when the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 22.6% in one day. Even clearer in our minds were the events that occurred throughout the month of October 2008. Headline after headline highlighted the crisis in the global banking systems. Fear of a collapse in these systems ultimately led to the start of the Great Recession. So with this historical context, the market seems to view the start of each October with some anxiety.
Volatility of the S&P 500 Index from 2012 – 2014