This is an infant currency. It isn't near as stable as the normal stock exchanges. It will ebb and flow much more widely and the best bet is to either hang on for the long ride, try to play the market, or get out and watch from the sidelines.
It is quite normal to happens to any form of cryptocurreny specially when it would experience an fork to improve the system in form of transaction. Actually it is not a bad thing, it is really an opportunity for people to start on investing to Bitcoin because it could increased its price after the successful fork.