People think 2008 was such a bear market that one had to just sell and sit tight and one would have made money. Nothing could be further from the truth.

See the pic, despite being 65% down from the top in 10 months, we had 4 ferocious rallies.

The fear of recession was there from Jan'08. After each new low and the subsequent rally, the common consensus #always was that "the markets have discounted all bad news and bottom has been made".

Each bear market though structurally same will have different trajectories. So don't try to interpolate the percentages now. Just understand that these fast ferocious rallies are a part of the whole structure. So choose your places to go long and go short wisely and carefully

Same scenario is 2000, a grinding bear market from 1800 to 850 Nifty levels. But see the rallies in between.

Still followed the lower high lower low structure, but the rallies were breath taking