September is often a loser for investors

By Allison Linn

The stock market plunge Thursday is no fun for investors, and also perhaps not that surprising given the fact that it is September.

According to the Stock Trader?s Almanac, September is often the biggest percentage loser for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ.

There are lots of factors that make September such a down month. Traders often come back from August vacations and want to?shake up?their portfolios, while other more technical factors can also upset trading.

This year, of course, we also have that pesky fear that we?re heading back into recession.

The Dow ended Thursday down about 390 points, after at one point flirting with a loss of around 500 points.

Of course, few people have forgotten September of 2008, when the financial crisis roiled markets.

That?s actually not the worst September in recent memory. According to the Stock Trader?s Almanac, the Dow was down 12.4 percent in September of 2002.

Related:

Recession's second act would be worse than the first

?The markets swung plenty in August, but September is historically worse

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Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/22/7903960-september-is-often-a-loser-for-investors

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