at nearly the halfway mark in a volatile year of trading the sp 500 index is down but not out to the point of an official bear market yet according to a widely followed definition a bear market occurs when a market or security is down 20 or more from a recent high the sp 500 spx is off 135 from a january high of 4796 which for now just means correction territory often defined as a 10 drop from a recent high the battered nasdaq composite comp  meanwhile is currently down 23 from a november 2021 high that sp bear market debate is raging nonetheless with some strategists and observers saying the sp 500 is growling just like a bear market should wall street banks like morgan stanley have been saying the market is getting close to that point read a secular bear market is here says this money manager these are the key steps for investors to take now but should the sp 500 officially enter the bear’s lair bank of america strategists led by michael hartnett have calculated just how long the pain could last looking at a history of 19 bear markets over the past 140 years they found the average price decline was 373 and the average duration about 289 days while “past performance is no guide to future performance” hartnett and the team say the current bear market would end oct 19 of this year with the sp 500 at 3000 and the nasdaq composite at 10000 check out their chart below the “good news” is that many stocks have already reached this point with 49 of nasdaq constituents more than 50 below their 52week highs and 58 of the nasdaq more than 373 down with 77 of the index in a bear market more good news “bear markets are quicker than bull markets” say the strategists the bank’s latest weekly data released on friday showed another 34 billion coming out of stocks 91 billion from bonds and 14 billion from cash they note many of those moves were “risk off” headed into the recent federal reserve meeting while the fed tightened policy as expected again this week uncertainty over whether its stance is any less hawkish than previously believed along with concerns that the central bank may not be able to tighten policy without triggering an economic downturn left stocks dramatically weaker on thursday with more selling under way on friday the strategists offer up one final factoid that may also give investors some comfort hartnett and the team noted that for every 100 invested in equities over the past year or so only 3 has been redeemed as well the 11 trillion that has flowed into equities since january 2021 had an average entry point of 4274 on the sp 500 meaning those investors are “underwater but only somewhat” said hartnett and the team