Today's news was a surprise.

The headline will say that "Largest Point Drop in History"...which is true, but it's more relevant what the % loss is...6.98%.

Unfortunately, in nearly 21,000 trading days, that's the 17th worst percentage loss of the last 80 YEARS! Of the 16 worse days, only 4 have been since the early 30's

Here are the numbers - compliments of some calculations off a Yahoo! data grab - Of those 16 days that were worse than today, the average change over the Dow over the next 3 months was -12.7%, 6 months was -13.7%, 12 months was -6.42%. In other words, history would imply (is past prologue???) that there's more downside ahead before things get better...and I'll personally be looking for the opportunties to buy...but for now, I'm on the sidelines.

Politics created today...politics may save the day tomorrow, but the world's trust is likely tarnished and will likely be that way for some time. My position from my 9/23 post remains unchanged and I'll be watching the market a lot more closely, but today is not a good day in my view