A lot of the time by focusing solely on the headline indices investors can miss seeing the level of the dispersion happening among individual stocks. With the more recent pick up in volatility, the difference between the performance winners and the performance losers year-to-day is quite staggering. YTD in North America, Forest Laboratories is up an impressive 45.6% as of the close yesterday. Meanwhile, Best Buy is the worse performer YTD in the MSCI North America Index  at -34.3%. Overall, there are 13 stocks that are already in “bear market territory” (down 20% or more) with another 78 stocks down over 10%.

In Europe, the worst performer YTD is Asos which is down 25.24% while the best performer is Fiat Ord up 49.6%. There are only 5 stocks in a bear market YTD with another 32 stocks down over 10%.

Finally in Asia, the worst performer is Hokkaido Electric Power (-43.65%) while the best performer has been Newcrest Mining (47.5%). The rout in Asia-Pacific so far this year has been deeper than in North America or Europe. There are 28 stocks down over 20% YTD and another 93 down over 10%.