| " After yesterday's sharp stock market plunge, investment experts were saying today that the most important thing for individual investors is to keep a sense of perspective. Just as one swallow doesn't make a spring, one decline should not produce portfolio panic." "One way of keeping a sense of perspective is to look at where the stock market stands today. Even with yesterday's 3 percent decline in the Dow Jones industrial average, the stock market is still 19 percent higher than it was on Oct. 3, 2006, when it set an all-time record." "History teaches that investors who sell based on a one day decline often make a serious mistake." "On Oct. 19, 1987, known then as "Black Monday," the Dow dropped 508 points, or 22.6 percent, to close at 1,738.74. But by the end of the year it had climbed back 2 percent and had regained all of its lost territory by January 1989. Investors who sold and stayed out of the market lost a bundle." "History offers another example from a worrisome economic period in the mid-1970s. In 1973 and 1974 Standard & Poor's 500 stock index declined steadily, losing 48 percent of its value. But in 1975 and 1976, stocks gained more than 60 percent." "Experts also point out that the Dow and S&P are benchmark averages,
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