This occurred despite the words of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who spoke on Tuesday. While only a few weeks ago the Fed's official position was that they were being watchful of inflation, Bernanke hinted strongly that the Fed’s Board of Governors would probably lower interest rates at its next meeting, on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29.

"In light of these developments, the Federal Reserve will need to consider whether the current stance of policy remains appropriate."

Well, that's about as strong a hint as you're going to get, it seems.

The DJIA dropped 200 points in the last hour, ending up down 508.39 points, closing at 9,447.11.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell by 5.7%, ending below 1,000 (996.23) for the first time in five years.

And the NASDAQ dropped 5.8%, falling to 1,755.

Some analysts believe we had a long period of extreme volatility to come.

“I think we have weeks of volatility ahead of us,” said Kim Caughey, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.

Hang on, it's a wild ride and getting wilder.