The market has behaved extremely poorly in 2008, but do you know how dramatic the decline has been for 2008?

Let’s compare major US Markets on a percentage basis:

Both the NASDAQ and Russell 2000, which are more volatile and have higher beta, often lead the market both up and down. If that is true again this time, we are in for a rough patch.

Both have declined 8% for 2008.

The Dow Jones and S&P 500, which share similar characteristics, have both declined 5% in ‘08.

Keep in mind that a “correction” in a bull market is often defined as a 10% decline. The market has already declined greater than 10% from its October/November 2007 highs.

There is the so called “January Effect,” which partially states that “As January goes, so goes the market” meaning that if January is negative, then the whole year will be negative (or vice versa).

We’ve not yet completed two weeks into the New Year, and already, investors are wishing it was 2007 again.

Time will tell as to what happens next, but let’s hope for the sake of investors that the rest of 2008 is not like the start of 2008.