Mark Hulbert is a regular contributor to MarketWatch. His Hulbert Ratings tracks investment newsletters that pay a flat fee to be audited. 

Bear markets that begin with big losses in their first four months last about as long as those that do not. That’s worth pointing out because, after hitting all-time highs on the first trading day of 2022, the major US stock market indexes have suffered an unusually large loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average's January-through-April decline was the worst start to a calendar year since 1939, for example. The comparable loss for the Nasdaq Composite was the worst start to any year in its history (It was created in 1971).