Record month for October (almost)

According to the financial behavior theorists we shouldn't be following our statements too frequently. It's just too hard on the investment psyche. Following our statements continuously with every zig and zag in the markets, would soon drive all of us stark raving mad they say.

After a poor showing in August and September, stock markets redeemed themselves somewhat with some stellar numbers for the month of October. But how stellar? 

According to a Marketwatch.com report on October 31, 2011, The Dow Jones was headed to be the best October ever. Unfortunately, the last day of the month was a down day and October 2011 will be the 3rd best ever October with a gain just over 10%. 

According to marketwatch.com (a publication of the Wall Street Journal), "Since the Dow was created in 1896, there have been two Octobers with better returns than that: 1982 (when the Dow rose 10.7%) and 2002 (when it rose 10.6%)." 

A broader based stock market index, the S&P 500 gained about 11% for the month. If you were cheering the price of oil, oil gained a remarkable 18% in October and gold went up 6% for the month. 

[Editor's note: Financial analysts tend to use the S&P 500 Index rather than the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  Here is an example of the S&P 500 Index on a daily basis; http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/charts/markets/SPX-snapshot.html?current-market-snapshot.gif ]