In this series, we'll take a look at the 25 stocks in the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that have collected the worst returns over the past decade. Our focus was the decade between June 30, 1998 and June 30, 2008. We ranked them from 25th worst-performer, up to our No. 1 most money-losing stock of the decade.

Talk about an exciting 10 years; we have the dot-com bubble, the sharp market plunge caused by September 11, a couple of wars ... and who could forget subprime? (No one, yet.)

Considering the events of the past decade, there might not be too many surprises here -- finance and telecom are both well-represented.

But let's remember the words of Tolstoy: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." In compiling this series, it became clear that the same holds true for stocks. Between earnings misses, outdated technology, vendettas, scandals, frauds, and wacky CEOs, no two stories are quite alike.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the weekly video series Option Basics on SchaeffersResearch.com.