Back on Monday October 19, 1987, the Dow fell 508 points, which was a decline of more than 22% in a single day. Today that same decline equates to roughly 2%. With the Dow trading at such high levels, in absolute point terms, a large decline might seem scary if not presented in percentage terms. The same is true when the financial media likes to focus on every 1,000 Dow points, as if a move from 25,000 to 26,000 is anything more than a simple 4% gain that historically takes less than 6 months, on average.

So rather than care about "a 1,000 point Dow decline!" let's look at a one-year chart of the S&P 500 for some perspective:

As you can see, all we have done over the last two days, when the Dow has dropped 1,600 points, is give back the gains booked in January! When I look at this chart, I don't see the mother load of all buying opportunities yet. I probably would not get even a little bit giddy about buying U.S. stocks unless we got back down to 2,400 or 2,500. That does not mean it will get there, or that I think it might (I -- like anybody else -- have no clue).

Momentum markets work in both directions, and when computerized algorithms conduct much of the daily trading in the stock market, moves like we see today can happen with ease, and most importantly, without tangible "reasons" behind them.

Most of the time I wish we could go back to the days when stocks were less volatile, a 10% correction occurred about once a year, on average, and the media did not over-hype days like today. It will make for good, scary headlines, but that's about it.