SYRACUSE -- Back to reality for the stock market - and back down.

Wall Street focused Wednesday on the bleak landscape ahead for the economy and sold off, wiping out the big gains from a day earlier and then some. The selling was intensified by worries about debt problems in Europe. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 519.83 points.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve said it planned to keep interest rates ultra-low for two more years. After some initial confusion, the stock market staged a huge comeback and had one of its best days.

But the interest-rate news proved to be a distraction. The Fed made the pledge because it sees almost no chance that the economy will improve substantially by 2013, and when investors focused on that, they dumped stocks again.

Wednesday was another day marked by big moves on the stock market. The Dow was down more than 300 points within minutes of the opening bell. It recovered some of that loss, then drifted steadily lower in the last two hours.

The market has traded that way for two weeks, lurching up and down. The most extreme example was Tuesday, when the Dow swung more than 600 points from a loss of 205 points to a gain of 429 points in the one hour and 45 minutes after the Fed's statement.

Cynthia Scott, president of OMC Financial Services in DeWitt, dropped by the CNY Central studios Wednesday afternoon to explain what investors can do to protect their portfolios in such a volatile market. She says:

- Europe is causing anxiety in our market because they may downgrade France

- Lighten up international markets, but keep emerging markets

- Continue to dollar cost average since you are added shares at bargain basement prices

- Continue to hold your bond position since Bernanke said he will hold interest rates low until 2013

- Don't leave your 401K at your previous employer since your investment options are limited: roll it over to an IRA

- If you are 60 or older and you are still working, you can roll over your existing 401K to an IRA to obtain more diversification if your plan permits

Are you an investor in the stock market? What are you doing to protect your assets? Leave a comment below and let us know your strategy.

The Dow closed at 10,719.94, down 4.6 percent for the day. By points, it was the ninth-steepest decline for the market. The Dow has lost more than 2,000 points in less than three weeks.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.