The market smarted today with its 280 point drop, but as MarketWatch pointed out, it was only off .7% for the week.

The trouble for a lot of investors is that averages don't mean much if you are in the wrong stock.

Some big name, mega-volume stocks took on water like the RMS Lusitania after it was torpedoed off the Irish coast.

Stocks that provide high-speed internet infrastructure had substantial losses. Charter (NASDAQ: CHTR), the cable firm, has fallen fell from $4.14 to $3.00 this week. Big Band Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) went from $14 to $10. Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW), another IPO in the industry fell from $17 to $14.50.

Companies in the tech sector that are perceived as already weak took big dives as well. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) was above $17 at the beginning of the week. It dropped to $16.35 today. AMD (NYSE: AMD) went from over $14 to $12.85. Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was above $23.60 early in the week. It hit $22.90 today. These stocks are already near their 52-week lows.

In a tough market, those companies viewed as being already in difficult straights often sell-off more than the rest of their industries. It seems that their recoveries appear less certain.

Mortgage companies are not even worth writing about. Some have lost 50% of their value. American Home Mortgage (NYSE:AHM) lost almost all of its. But, the fall-out in financial stocks is far from over.

The market thinks that Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) is holding more than its share of weak debt and debt derivatives. If that is true, the stock could be back to its late 2002 low of $54. That means that its value would fall another 50%. Hard to imagine, but entirely possible.

Investors in stocks that are dropping are in a panic now. They have the weekend to read the tea leaves, sweat it out at night, and hope that Asia rallies early Monday.

If the Nikkei and Shanghai Composite signal that the fear has moved around the world.

Well...

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 247wallst.com.