Data of historical bear markets for the Straits Times Index (taken from fundsupermart)
The above diagram which is taken from fundsupermart shows the duration it takes for the market to bottom from its previous peak. It ranges from 87 days to 627 days and the average is 360 days. If we take the low of 1473 made on the 28th of October last year as the bottom and the peak level of 3875 made of the 11th of October in 2007, the current bear market has lasted for 383 days and that is close to the average duration for bear markets.
For the percentage drop, if we use the low made on the 28th of October last year and the peak level of 3875 made of the 11th of October in 2007 similarly, the Straits Times Index has dropped by a percentage of around 62% and that is comparable to the percentage drop during the Asian Financial Crisis, which stands as the biggest plunge ever from the peak, for the Straits Times Index.
Based on these factors, one may be taking on a high risk of missing out on the market bottom. It is difficult to know exactly when will the market bottom. But the most important thing is that one should not try to catch the market bottom since it can notoriously difficult to do so, but one should at least be sure that he is buying near the market bottom. In my opinion, we are near the market bottom indeed based on the above factors. A note of caution though if you are planning to buy. You should be emotionally prepared to suffer a temporary decline in the value of equities that you have bought but I suspect it will not last long given that as of today, it has been 480 days from the previous peak and the longest historical duration is 627 days so far.