Markets' fall in 2008 was worst in seven decades

Investors can't close the book on 2008 fast enough, and it will be some time before they can look back and laugh it off.

After delivering investors a brutal 38.5% loss, 2008 stands as the worst year for the Standard & Poor's 500 since 1937. The 33.8% drop in the Dow Jones industrials was the worst since 1931. That easily makes 2008 the nastiest annual decline ever experienced by most current investors.

"2008? Good riddance," says David Sowerby of Loomis Sayles. "It's been like a bad date. 'Don't ever call me again.' "

There is no shortage of ways to quantify the destruction. The carnage has been nothing short of breathtaking, in that it has been:

•Unrelenting in its persistence. The Nasdaq composite index fell 40.5%, making it the worst of the three major U.S. indexes, all of which were underwater from 2007 levels for all 253 trading days. It was the S&P's third worst year, the second worst for the Dow and the worst ever for the Nasdaq.