Did you make money in stocks last month? It wasn't qute as easy in October compared to September. Average returns were down a bit from 2.3% in September to a -0.8% last month. Just think. It could have been a bit worse without yesterday's quarter point decrease in the Fed Funds rate. Overall the stock market was just about exactly as risky a place to be in October as it was in September. Volatility increased only slightly from September's 1.7% to 1.8% in October.

S&P500 Least Volatile
We had an interesting mix of stocks making up October's ten least volatile stocks in the S&P 500. Alltel let the pack of our least risky stocks to own in October. Alltel was fully 9 times less risky to own than the overall S&P500 index. The rest of the S&P500's top ten least risky stocks in October was dominated by stocks in the Consumer and Health related industries.

S&P500 Most Volatile
Take a walk on the wild side? Thanks to the subprime mortgage fiasco, which is making news yet again this morning - the latest statistics show a doubling of foreclosures over the same quarter last year - Countrywide Financial claimed the top spot for most risky stock to own. IT stocks dominated the remainder of the S&P500's top ten most volatile in October. Tektronix investors saw a wild ride. The company is being taken over by Danaher Corp, a Washington DC manufacturing company for a buyout price of $38 per share.

S&P500 Best Performers
Tektronix shareholders enjoyed that ride too. TEK tops the list of S&P500 winners for October, up 32%. And in general, technology - Information Technology in particular - was a good place to be last month. The IT sector dominated the S&P500 top ten returns, taking 7 of the 10 spots. Of particular note, Microsoft was the S&P500's 4th best performing stock last month, outperforming Google. I'd have to check to be sure, but I'd lay odds that's the first time that has happened since Google went public.

S&P500 Worst Performers
And finally, the laggards. In October the Financial sector dominated the bottom ten S&P500 performers. Check out Ambac Financial. A minus 58.9% return for the month. That hurts. Want to bet on a turnaround? Just remember, no matter how low a stock goes, it can still drop another 60%. Word.

Well, that's my report on the S&P500 for the month of October. Overall, you had a slightly better than even chance of making money last month. I hope your stock holdings were among the 260 stocks in the S&P500 with positive returns last month. And I hope your November performance is even better in terms of both risk and reward.