what is a correction 
in investing a correction is usually defined as a decline of 10 or more in the price of a security from its most recent peak 1 corrections can happen to individual assets like an individual stock or bond or to an index measuring a group of assets an asset index or market may fall into a correction either briefly or for sustained periods days weeks months or even longer however the average market correction is short lived and lasts anywhere between three and four months 2investors traders and analysts use charting methods to predict and track corrections many factors can trigger a correction from a large scale macroeconomic shift to problems in a single company s management plan the reasons behind a correction are as varied as the stocks indexes or markets they affect 