(MONEY Magazine) – Congratulations! When the Dow dived 190 points last Oct. 13, small investors like you generally reacted precisely as they should. They sat tight, didn't panic, and even took advantage of the market's decline to do some buying. Says John M. Butler, president of Denver's 18-fund Financial Programs group: ''We had some exchanges out of stock funds early on the Monday after the drop, but by about 11 a.m. even people who had given sell orders that morning were buying.'' Nevertheless, October was almost certainly the most unsettling month for fund investors since, well, you know when. Here, then, is a rundown of how funds -- and their service arms -- weathered a tempestuous four weeks. Performance. The average stock fund endured its worst month so far this year, losing 3.4% in October, compared with 2.3% for the S&P 500. Sustaining the heaviest losses were small-company growth funds, off 4.4%, and the internationals, off 4.3%. The month's biggest loser: Strong Discovery, off 11.3%. Manager Richard Strong attributes the slide partly to the fund's 60% position in over-the-counter stocks, which fell almost thrice as much as the Dow's 1.4% loss for the month. Despite the hit, Discovery remains up 21.5% so far this year. Service. Unlike in the crash of '87, when the redemption rush snarled funds' phone lines and computers, investors this October had little trouble reaching service reps or executing orders. Not that fund-company phones weren't ringing. Putnam, for example, received 11,000 calls Oct. 16, compared with 8,000 on a normal Monday. At most firms, however, call volume was only half to three-quarters as great as during the October '87 crash and was well within the capacity of the upgraded phone systems that have been installed since then at many firms. MONEY reporters who spot-checked fund hotlines throughout Monday, Oct. 16 generally reached service reps within a minute or two. One exception was the Janus Group in Denver. All 15 calls that our reporters made to the firm met with a busy signal. Fund spokesman Chrissy Snyder says the problems stemmed from an insufficient phone system that was being revamped. Work on the project, she says, was completed one week later.

BOX: Money Meter

Cash is king The gauges below compare funds' net cash flow in the four weeks to Nov. 1 with the preceding month. Investors clearly favored money-market and bond funds (except for the high-yields).

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE