This chart puts the scale of the stock market plunge into perspective

The markets have had an ugly start in 2016.

On Thursday, stocks got slammed for the third time this past week, which made the four-day stretch officially the worst start to a year ever for the Dow and S&P 500.

But as interesting as it is to track the play-by-plays, it's also worth taking a gander at how this recent plunge looks relative to others.

This chart from Doug Short shows the percentage drops off the highs in the S&P 500 since March 9, 2009. Everything that was greater than a 5% drop is marked with a red dot.

Notably, although it's certainly not the ugliest dip on the chart, this past week's plunge is 8.81% below its all-time closing high.

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