This has been a challenging year all the way around for the investing community. Since notching their respective all-time highs between mid-November and the first week of January, the ageless Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), widely followed S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and innovation-driven Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) have all plummeted into a bear market. The bond market hasn't provided much of a safety net, either, with bonds delivering what may well be their worst year in history!

The good news -- if there's any to be found among this market tumult -- is that every substantive decline in the major U.S. stock indexes has always represented a buying opportunity for patient investors. But this doesn't change the fact that heightened volatility and the growing prospect of a U.S. recession has investors on edge and wondering, "When will the bear market bottom?"

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Source Fool.com