nascar fans out there can relate to that bit of the story. so here is how the numbers shake out. it's the worst losing january in the s&p 500 since 2010.ter has been correct 62 times meaning it has a 73% success rate. although it is more accurate here we will say this in predicting positive years for stocks when there's a positive january as opposed to a negative year nor stock when there is a negative month of january. but there's one other market stat you want to keep an eye on, that's market volatility as measured by the vix. so-called fear index. it uses options prices to gauge anticipated market swings or volatility. now, that gauge is up 36% for january for what has historically been a relatively calm month for stocks. that's a big move. since the index started in 1986 a 15-plus percent gain in that volatility index in january has only happened three times. in two of those times, the s&p closed down more than 5% for the year. the other time was the crash year of 1987 where stocks did manage to recover and finish up on the year. still, that january barometer has some traders worried about the rest of 2014. now, we have all the num