Between April 10 and 14, Holmes lost about 30 percent of his portfolio. On Friday alone, he was down 13 percent. But he says that his stocks have gone up 20 percent since then.

Helfrich also lost a bundle in the recent downturn--perhaps 75 percent of the money he had made on paper. But because he is involved in volatile stocks, he says, the decline was not a complete surprise.

But because Helfrich was at a track meet, he did not learn of the market's drop until he returned on Saturday.

"Usually I watch it on a daily basis and freak out about the whole thing," Helfrich says. "I didn't have a chance to check it before the market had closed, so I wasn't quite as apprehensive as I would have normally been."

He is philosophical about the change in his fortunes.

"I'm at a point in my life where the money I put in there is money I feel I can lose," Helfrich says. "I'm really scared for the people who have their life savings invested in stocks. I really live by the philosophy that you shouldn't put money in the stock market that you can't afford to lose."

So has he learned anything? "I should have had set limits and just sold out then no matter what was going on," he says. "In the future, that is what I will probably do."