To cut through the ups and downs of the stock market, we enroll in Investment 101.  We used $1,000 as an example to see what would have happened to the money in the past year.  If we had invested the $1,000 a year ago into the S&P, we wanted to know the value today.  Investment Advisor Jake Dollarhide helps us understand the numbers.  He says our money would have lost a quarter of its value.  Dollarhide says just 6 months into the S&P, our $1,000 would be worth $875 at the end of March 2008.  Then this week, just 6 months later, our initial $1,000 would be worth $740.  Dollarhide compared the S&P and the bond market.  He says if we had invested the same $1,000 in bonds one year ago, the value would $1,049 today.

Dollarhide says the heavy losses in the stock market had some people running to other safer options like the bond market this week.  He says the exodus helped drive down the stock market.  He adds with the recent market volatility, there are some investments that are now back to 2005 levels.