October: The Cruelest Month

Sure, the markets finished up today -- the Dow closed up 144 points, or 1.6 percent; the S&P 500 closed up 1.5 percent and the Nasdaq closed up 1.3 percent on the day.

Woo-hoo!

But hold on there, podner. Here at The Ticker, we take the long view of things, as should you.

Nobody was happier to see October end than Wall Street. It was a catastrophic month.

For the month, here is how the three major indices performed:

- The Dow: Down 14 percent -- its worst percentage loss since October 1987, site of that memorable crash.

- The S&P 500: Down 16 percent -- its worst month since February 1933, one month shy of the nadir of the Great Depression.

- The Nasdaq: Down 17 percent -- its seventh-worst month ever.

If there's any good news to all of this, it's this: Historically, the markets trade higher in the six months from November to April than they do for the other six months of the year.

-- Frank Ahrens