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The 2008 financial crisis

Risk/2007 to 2009 · -51.93% · 4 sources · data as of 31 Jul 2026

The S&P 500 lost 51.93% between October 2007 and November 2008. That is the headline, and it is the second deepest decline in the entire record since 1929. But the version of 2008 most people carry around is wrong in a few specific ways that matter, so this page tries to set it straight.

Three things get covered. The shape of the decline, including the second leg most people forget, which took another 27.62% off between January and March 2009, after the point most of us remember as the bottom. The individual days, because the worst six weeks of the crisis contained some of the largest single day gains in the index's history sitting directly next to some of the largest falls. And the volatility records, where 2008 and 2020 each hold a different one and quoting either as settling the argument is a common mistake. There is also the claim you see everywhere, that 2008 was the worst year in stock market history. It was not. 1931 was worse, by 7.29 percentage points. The reason that keeps getting repeated is worth its own section, and it comes down to where a table starts rather than to anything about the market.

Four sources sit behind this page and each is listed at the foot with what it contributed. Where two of them disagree I have said so on the page instead of quietly picking one.