Misery may love company, but this was ridiculous. More than a million IBM stockholders last week took a nightmare ride on astock they had long trusted. IBM had been sliding all year recent 1hitting 10-year lows, but after the company announced last Tuesday that it would, among other things, slash another 25,000 jobs, thestock took a historic rise. In 48 hours, it lost 11 points, or almost 218 percent of its value, closing Wednesday at 51. On Friday it hitother new low. Big Board officials camped out on the exchange floor 3to prevent chaotic, land brokers fielded frantic calls from investors 4in various stages of disbelief and agony. " They're screaming and hollering," said Carol Komskis of York Securities. They are saying, "Things like this just don't happen in America. " Stock prices that rise and fall are anything new; that's what 5makes a market. But Big Blue had always epitomized the blue-chipstock on that Americans could count to send the kids to college or 6help retire in the style. Some investors may be in blissful 7ignorant; pension funds across the country are heavily invested in 8IBM.(The New York State Employee Pension Funds lonely hold 93. 6 million shares.)But the charm of stocks like IBM, General Motors and Westinghouse was that you could feel secure in buyingthem even you did not know " earnings". Such stock made 10generations of Americans faithful capitalists. "This was the kind of stock that created wealth for a lot of people in this country. " Says Jonathan Pond, a Boston-based financial counselor and author.