The biggest percentage gains in stocks? Try the 1930s
— -- Q: What were the biggest gaining days in stock market history?
A: Now that 100-point swings by the Dow Jones industrial average are pretty common, it's important to have a good historical perspective.
The first thing to understand about how important a swing is in the Dow, or any market measure, is that it's usually best to look at the percentage gain or loss rather than the point change.
By paying attention to a percentage move, you can truly understand how significant a move is relative to its current value. You can see percentage changes for the Dow, Standard & Poor's 500 stock index and Nasdaq Composite index for both the day and year so far on USATODAY.com's Money section at money.usatoday.com.
To put today's rallies into perspective, you'll need some historical data on the big percentage gains of the past. For this type of analysis, it can be useful to use the Dow, because it has such a long history. You can read about that history here.
If you see a large percentage jump in the Dow, you can easily check to see if it ranks in the top 10 gains. Dow Jones Indexes provides data on the largest gains, and losses, in the Dow on this page. You may have to register to see it. But it's free.
You'll see that the Dow's biggest one-day percentage gain occurred March 15, 1933, when it rose 15.34% on an 8.26 point rise. The next biggest gain was 14.87% on Oct. 6, 1931. This century doesn't show up until No. 5.
Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Click here to see previous Ask Matt columns.
