Forex Investment and Currency Trading

August-October 1987 crash and August-October 2008 crash in DJIA

Pattern and timing of this is very similar but the S&P is even more so
August-October 1987 crash and August-October 2008 crash in S&P 500

Between August and October 1987 the S&P 500 fell 35.94% over 41 trading days.
Between August and October 2008 the S&P 500 fell 36.05% over 45 trading days.

Time will tell if that was the low on Friday 10th October but the dates below are certainly worth bearing in mind on the S&P 500

20 October 1987: Low of bear market fall
11 October 1990: Low of bear market fall
08 October 1998: Low of bear market fall
10 October 2002: Low of bear market fall
10 October 2008: Low of bear market fall (So far)

Even IF that does turn out to be the low expect nervous and choppy trading for some time to come.

Another period that shows similarities in the DJIA is 1973

Then it fell 45% over nearly 2 years compared to the present 44.5% over 12 months (So it is similar in shape and depth but much more aggressive in timing this time)
Revisiting the 1937-1938 versus 2007-2008 comparison

This had been the favourite relative chart for the last 5 years. When say relative it is because while the path and the timeframes between 1929 and 1938 and 2000 and 2008 have been amazingly similar here up to recently all the percentage changes in the DJIA had been significantly smaller than those seen in that prior period. Given recent developments we have to entertain the idea that this move could not just equal that in time seen in 1937 to 1938 but also could be as severe in percentage terms.

When looked at it from that point of view you can see above how the chart looks and the statistics so far are

In 1937 to 1938 the DJIA fell (High to low) 50.15% over 55 weeks

Since the peak last year we have dropped high to low so far for 44% over 53 weeks.