Will This October Be ‘Deja Vu All Over Again’ from 2008 and 1929? Are We Due for More Pain?

April may be the cruelest month, but October is the scariest — and not just because of the ghouls and goblins we invite into our lives. The stock market can send us all longing for warmer economic weather.

Very few if any are still around from 96 years ago and the Great Crash of October 1929 that quickly spiraled into the Great Depression.

Many of us, however, can still vividly remember the Great Recession of 2008, which actually began in 2007 but was epitomized by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, granted not in October but in September.

Still, Octobers have historically been unkind to the stock indices, with average losses totaling about 10 percent.

On the first day of October 2025, even with a government shutdown already dragging things down, the stock indices — Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ — are all currently riding upward after down openings.

It’s early and anything can happen, but hold onto your pocketbooks — and savings accounts — if you rely on the markets for any of your current income.