The Stock Market’s Gain Has Come on One Day in Every 21 Months

The Dow’s entire 3,066% gain since the 1929 top came on just 46 days. On average, that’s being long on just one day every 21 months. The other 99.78% of the time, the Dow has been flat.

While this fact is technically correct, it’s very misleading. For one, I’m using the market’s top in 1929, plus I’m not including dividends.

But what really makes the stat work is the market’s volatility. Those 46 days were all days of greater than 5.3% rallies. In fact, 34 of those 46 days occurred from 1929 to 1933.

Posted by on November 9th, 2011 at 1:04 pm


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