Oct. 11--The calls started last Friday.

"I want you to sell out everything and give it to me in cash," clients told Lynn Evans, CFP, president of Northeastern Financial Consultants Inc.

"They just wanted to stop the losses," Evans said. "I've never seen anything like this. Never."

As the major American stock market indexes hemorrhaged, sliding faster than they have in generations, local brokers and financial advisers, like Lynn Evans, tried to assuage the fears of clients.

Holders of 401(k) plans and other investors watched the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan prove ineffective in shoring up confidence in the financial system. The major American stock indexes lost about a quarter of their value in the last two weeks -- the four trading days before the bill's passage, the day it was passed, and the five since.

Last year at this time, the Dow Jones industrial average tipped the scales above 14,000 points. It closed Friday at a svelte 8,451.19, a 40-percent drop.

"Expectations were things were going to become normal very quickly and we weren't going to see volatility," said Christine Falvello, owner of Navigate Financial Advisors in Sugarloaf Township. "That was not going to happen, and it certainly did not happen."

Ed Katarsky, CFP, of Ameriprise Financial Services in Wilkes-Barre, said he has not seen such a severe stock market plunge in his 30 years in the business.

"It's pretty bad," Katarsky said. "With the credit crunch and no money going out, everyone is selling everything. It's tough to keep everyone sane about what's going on."

"People who are very upset and scared are getting out of the market and unfortunately, that's what happens," said John Gager, an investment advisor in the Back Mountain. "People are liquidating mutual funds and selling everything wholesale. It's just a lack of confidence."

There are also very real indicators of an economic downturn, and more hardship ahead. Inflation is rising along with unemployment, which climbed 1.7 points in the region over the last year to settle at 6.7 percent in August. A Congressional budget analyst this week estimated Americans' retirement funds lost $2 trillion over the last 15 months. And stalwart American companies like Procter & Gamble and General Electric have announced lackluster earnings reports and shares of each have dropped from recent highs 20.8 percent and 48.9 percent, respectively.

Peter Shelp, CFP, branch manager for Janney Montgomery Scott in Kingston, said because of the rapid devaluation of most stocks, he is encouraging people to add to their portfolios systematically over the next year.

"These things have happened in the past and we have recovered from all of them," Shelp said. "Hopefully, we are in the tail end and will begin to recover from this."

"I'm trying to tell my clients not to bail out" of their investments, Katarsky said. "It can't last much longer."

But, as the markets continue to slide with no sign of a bottom in sight, many financial experts find themselves running out of reasons for their clients to entrust their money to Wall Street.

"All the arrows in my quiver my quiver are probably exhausted at this point," Evans said. "All I have to fall back on is the fundamental belief that the American economy will, at some point, recover."

dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2115

nsohr@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2052

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